The Darkness I Call My Life, Death Scroll 1
by Mizu Kouken
Summary: This is my version of the Naruto series. Instead of just 3 genin on Team 7 there’s four and theirs an air of mystery and coldness to this 4th genin. It’ll still follow the storyline the original Naruto series does just with a little variations of my own h
1. Chapter 1

The Darkness I Call My Life

_Death Scroll I_

-Summary-

This is my version of the Naruto series. Instead of just 3 genin on Team 7 there's four and theirs an air of mystery and coldness to this 4th genin. It'll still follow the storyline the original Naruto series does just with a little variations of my own here and there. Warning-super strong OC. Revised and renamed from the story My Deepest Darkest Secret.

Rate: T-M

Warning: If you do not like Sakura and Ino bashing then this fic is not for you! This is also a Sas/OC pairing with Nar/Hina

P.s. I'll start of when it's the day of the Team pairings since we all know what happened in the first episode/chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto if I did I would be a multibillionaire.


	2. The Wandering Kunoichi Appears

**-Chapter 1: The Wandering Kunoichi Appears-**

_An hour before dawn…._

A lone figure appeared, wearing a black, tattered cloak with its hood pulled low over their head so you couldn't see anything but a black mask that had wrinkles in it giving anyone the impression that the stranger was frowning. Exactly what the stranger was frowning about no one could conclude.

The stranger sat atop a black stallion that was built like a machine with is' black mane and black eyes as each trotting step made the stranger's presence ever so closer and closer to the gates of Konohagakure no Sato.

"Halt stranger! You must present a passport or license before entering the Village Hidden in the Leaves. If you do not have either then tell us your business for entering our village or turn around and be on your way," a gate guard appeared and said briskly when the stranger came within 10 feet from the gate.

The stranger dug into one of the many pockets on the inside of their cloak and withdrew a piece of paper and wordlessly gave it to the gate guard who read it suspiciously.

The gate guard did an intake of breath as his eyes widened when he read the contents of the letter.

"Oh, my apologies miss. I'll let you in immediately, if you continue along this path it'll lead you to a big red tower. That's the Hokage Tower where you'll find the Sandaime. Open the gate," the gate guard and called out to the shinobi who were working the gate.

The Stranger nodded and took back the note and tucked it back into her cloak before nudging the horse forward through the now open gates and within the confines of Konoha.

_30 minutes later……_

The Sandaime hummed after he finished the letter the same stranger gave him when he or she arrived moments before.

"I see, so you are the new student. Well before you can be put on a squad I need to teach and test you on three E-rank level jutsus. Oh, and you can take off the cloak, no need to be shy," The Sandaime said to the stranger.

The stranger nodded and undid the clasp that held the stranger's cloak around their neck and it slowly fell to reveal a girl of no more than 13 years of age. She was very beautiful and you could tell she was in the beginning-middle of her developing stages to woman hood.

She came to the height of 5'7". Long, raven black hair that was pulled back into a high, french-braided ponytail with a few bangs going down the side of her head stopping at her collar bone and a few more bangs falling dangerously into her narrowed midnight blue eyes framed by thick, long eyelashes and clean eyebrows, the braid itself went all the way to her heels. She wore a black mask over the lower half of her face covering her mouth and nose.

What was strange was the kunoichi's attire. Over the torso was a sleeveless, black, fishnet shirt and over the top of the fishnet shirt was another sleeveless shirt only this one was a see-through midnight blue material; the shirt slanted down to the left and ended at her left hip. Over the midnight blue shirt was a black, spandex, sports-bra like sleeveless shirt that ended just past her developing B-cup chest. In the middle of the black shirt on her back was a weird symbol. It was a crimson red sun inside of a silver, crescent moon. _(A/N: You know where you have a crescent moon and in between the two points of the crescent moon is the sun-I'll try to draw a picture and scan it into my profile.)_ She wore black spandex biker shorts that ended at the mid-thigh. Over the shorts was a midnight blue see-through cloth that was tied at her right hip and draped down at an angle and stopped at a point just above the outside of her left knee.

On the kunoichi's arms were black wrappings that went from the knuckles on her hand to her elbows. Over the black wrappings she wore black fingerless gloves that had silver guards on them. Also over the black wrappings were cloth arm bands the cloth being midnight blue see-through and started at the middle of her biceps and ended at her wrists with a slit on each side going all the way up to the top of the band. _(A/N: Again I'll try to draw a picture and scan it into my profile so you guys aren't confused, if any of you are an artist and can draw, and know how to use a scanner, feel free to try to draw my character and ask for my e-mail or put it in your profile so I can look at it and tell you if it's correct or not. I'm a realistic drawer and suck at anime drawing)_

On the Kunoichi's legs were the same black wrappings but no midnight blue, see-through cloth band on top. The black wrappings ran from just below the knee cap to the arch of the foot and black ninja sandals on her feet. But on top of the black wrappings were two pairs of sais in sai holsters, one on the inside of her calves and the other pair on the outside. The ones on her outer calves had a regular black hilt with a blue line around the middle of the hilt; the blade of the sai was a midnight blue color with a black dragon engraved in black paint on the sides of the blade. The pair of sais on her inner calves also had a regular black hilt but had a crimson red line running down on each side of the hilt; the blade of the sais was a crimson red color with a black phoenix engraved in black paint on the blades.

In the middle of each thigh was a kunai holster each that had been bound to the thigh with regular white wrappings. On each hip was your standard shuriken holster and along the back of her shorts at the waist band were six black scroll containers. In front the shuriken holster on her right hip was a silver horn tied to the cloth; in front of the shuriken holster on her left hip was a katana in a black sheath with blue wrappings around the black hilt. Two more katanas were strapped on her back in criss cross X fashion, with red wrappings around their black hilts.

"Care to tell me who you are?" the Sandaime inquired for the Kunoichi's name wasn't written in the letter.

"Serena Drystilia _(A/N: Last name pronounced-Driss-stil-ya)_ Sandaime-sama," a smooth voice answered from the kunoichi.

"You're _thee_ Serena Drystilia? The Wandering Kunoichi?" the Sandaime said in awe with his eyes wide as he stared at the legendary kunoichi before him.

"Yes, Sandaime-sama. Now meaning to be disrespectful but may we please commence with the three E-rank jutsus you must teach me? I need to find a place to stay if I am going to live in the Village Hidden in the Leaves," Serena said trying to get back on track.

"Ah, yes of course. Forgive me Serena-san. Anyhow the three E-rank jutsus are the _Bunshin no Jutsu, Henge no Jutsu, _and _Kawarimi no Jutsu_," the Sandaime informed her.

Serena nodded and spoke, "I already know Kawarimi no Jutsu and Henge no Jutsu, you only have to show me the hand signs for Konoha's version of Bunshin no Jutsu."

"You do? Well that makes things a lot easier, but one question, how is it that you already know how to do the Kawarimi no Jutsu and Henge no Jutsu?" The Sandaime asked suspiciously.

"Why do you think I'm called the Wandering Kunoichi? I travel from village to village to learn new things to apply to my own skills as a kunoichi so of course I would have to learn Henge no Jutsu and Kawarimi no Jutsu," Serena explained as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Ah, that explains it. Anyway, let's get to work on that Bunshin no Jutsu, shall we?" the Sandaime suggested trying to change the subject.

Surprisingly, Serena was very fast learner as she only had to practice the jutsu twice to get it down.

"Alright for the test, produce 3 bunshin and then do a henge and kawarimi," the Sandaime requested.

Serena nodded and brought her hands up to do the necessary hand signs and said, "Bunshin no Jutsu." And did what the Hokage asked of her after that.

"Well you've gotten all of the jutsus down, congratulations you've passed. Here is your Hitae-ate and since class starts in 30 minutes at the Ninja Academy and you need to be there for the team placings I suggest you go there first after this. Ask for Iruka's class he's the one you need to give this note to, it explains that you are a new student and are to be placed on Team 7. Welcome to Konoha Serena-san, may your skills be a great asset to the shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village," the Sandaime said after handing Serena a folded up, note.

"Thank you, Sandaime-sama," Serena said bowing to the Hokage and then she picked up her cloak and left the room.

_35 minutes later……._

Serena finally found the Ninja academy and was now currently standing beside a man who was knocking on the door to a classroom. The instructor who was currently giving a lecture to the newly graduated genin stopped speaking at the interrupting knock cutting off his droning voice before there was a couple of footsteps and then the door slid open to reveal a chuunin instructor with his brown hair up in a ponytail and a scar across his nose.

"May I help you?" the instructor inquired after seeing the man standing out in the hall with Serena behind him, her cloak back on but with the hood down and hitae-ate tied to her forehead.

"You have an additional genin to pair up, she just arrived today," the man said as Serena handed the chuunin she assumed to be Iruka the note the Hokage gave her.

"Oh, alright. Well then if you'll come in I'll introduce you to the class and get started," Iruka said to Serena after reading the note and then turned and walked back to his desk as Serena followed in and closed the door.

Conscious of everyone's stares, Serena took her place next to Iruka and faced the class with an expressionless face.

"Class we have a new student that will be joining us. She's already passed the exam and is a genin just like the rest of you. Unfortunately since she makes the class an odd number there will be one team that consists of 4 genin instead of the usual 3," Iruka explained.

There was a unison of groaning and one genin glared daggers at Serena who threw it right back at him making the genin gulp.

"Now would you like to tell the class who you are and a little something about yourself?" Iruka directed this question at the kunoichi next to him.

"My name is Serena Drystilia and people know me by the title the Wandering Kunoichi and that's all I will tell you for now," Serena said monotonously.

There was a collective gasp as everyone stared at Serena.

"You're the Wandering Kunoichi?" the same genin that glared at her blurted out.

"Yeah, what of it?" Serena said slowly her arms now crossed as she quirked an eyebrow at the genin.

"You can't be her. I heard that the victims that survived the Wandering Kunoichi's wrath said that it was full grown woman that attacked them. You look no older than 13," a kunoichi from the back accused.

"Haven't you ever heard of the phrase _'Looks can be deceiving?'_" Serena countered.

The kunoichi blushed in embarrassment and shot Serena a dirty look.

"Well Serena if you would please take a seat next to Sasuke Uchiha we can continue on with the Team placings," Iruka said to Serena.

Shrugging off the glares she just got from all of the females in the classroom, Serena spoke, "That's great and all but which one's Sasuke Uchiha?"

Now the female population looked appalled as if Serena had just committed some sort of crime and the male population looked amused well except for one boy who had raven black hair that stuck up at the back like a chicken's ass and onyx eyes. He looked slightly curious at the girl I mean it's not every day you wake up and come across a kunoichi that doesn't know who you are.

"How could you not know the hottest guy in Konoha?" a blonde with a high ponytail said dreamily obviously a fangirl.

"Squealer, I just got to this village an hour and a half ago. IT took me 15 minutes to get to the Hokage tower, 5 minutes to be taught and tested by the Hokage himself and 30 minutes to come and find this academy. Not exactly a whole lot of time to take the time to get to know the town on who is whom so forgive me if I'm not exactly jumping up and down with joy at the thought of sitting next some stranger I don't even know. I'm also taking a shot in the dark here but I'm guessing from the too much make up plastered on your face and all of the skin you're showing you probably spend al of your time and looks for this Sasuke Uchiha who's probably some arrogant, cold hearted bastard that only cares about himself. Wake up blondie _(Quick note: I have nothing against blonde's I only be a bitch to them when they are a bitch to me)_ and stop daydreaming on cloud nine about some guy who'll never take a second glance in your direction unless you're someone he respects or you might as well stop being a kunoichi. This is the real world, as a full fledged ninja you must be prepared to make the choices your parents would never even think of considering. This is this ninja world you either must kill or be killed and in order to be the former you must train as hard as you can until you tear your muscles and break your bones so you'll be strong enough to not end up as the ladder," Serena snapped at the blonde as she glared coldly at her.

Serena didn't mean to be so rude but those types of girls really piss her off. They give kunoichis that actually work hard to be strong a bad name and that blonde really needed a slap in the face to wake up and face reality.

The blonde, everyone could tell was both embarrassed and pissed at being told off by some raven haired bitch that didn't even know her. What was funny though was those words hit more close to home than anything else.

The chicken haired onyx eyed boy didn't bother to hide his amused grin along with the rest of the male population. One less fangirl is a plus in his eyes although the arrogant, cold hearted bastard comment did piss him off a little bit.

One pink haired kunoichi did snicker at the embarrassed and angry blonde.

"And what are you laughing about pinky? I bet you do the same thing just a tad bit weaker than the blondie from the chakra levels I sense from you and her," Serena rounded on the pink unsuspecting kunoichi who immediately got red from embarrassment and anger and was about to through some form of insult back but Iruka decided to intervene before things got uglier.

"That's enough Serena-san! You may take your seat next to Sasuke-san. Sasuke-san would you please raise your hand so Serena-san will know who you are?" Iruka said sternly.

Sasuke raised his hand and Serena inwardly groaned when she saw him.

_"I hate it when I'm right! And what's with the hairstyle? Does he think he'll look cool posing as a chicken's ass?"_ Serena thought as she walked up the stairs and squeezed past his chair and plopped down in the empty chair next to him.

"Stop staring it's annoying," Serena droned when she felt the Uchiha's onyx eyes on her.

"You know you just made enemies with all of the female population for what you just said?" Sasuke pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

"Forgive, Mr. Chicken-ass-hair if I don't give a damn," Serena drawled sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

"Hn, don't say I didn't warn you," Sasuke said and turned and faced Iruka who had continued to speak.

"I will now call out the teams, the genin that belong to that team, and their jounin instructor. First off Team 7, this is the team that has the four shinobi in it. First there's the new student Serena Drystilia, Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sasuke Uchiha. Your Jounin instructor is Hatake Kakashi," Iruka said.

Serena didn't bother to hold back her groan as she banged her forehead down on the desk a couple of times as Naruto and Sakura both cheered wand groaned while Sasuke watched in silent amusement as Serena abused the poor desk with her forehead.

"Why does Kami have to be such a sadist?" Serena said aloud.

"Kami? Sadistic?" Sasuke asked dubiously.

"Yeah, you see I'm stuck with a team that consist of a fangirl, a loud mouth that probably couldn't find the word silence if he looked it up in the dictionary, and a cold hearted, arrogant bastard that has his hair in the shape of chicken's ass," Serena replied in annoyance.

Sasuke scowled. "Stop calling me that!" he snapped in his own annoyance.

"Which one? Cold hearted, arrogant bastard or chicken ass hair?" Serena fired back.

"Both they're annoying, " Sasuke growled with a frown and a glare.

"Fine then I'll call you Sunshine," Serena simply responded with a shrug.

Sasuke scowled that nickname was more annoying than the last two put together.

_Lunch time…._

Serena sat with her horse outside the ninja academy on a swing that was hooked to a tree as she ate her lunch from a bento, enjoying the sun and breeze.

When she was half way done a shadow fell over her and she turned and saw Sasuke standing there with his hands in his pockets. Serena raised an eyebrow at the Uchiha prodigy.

"Ok, what do you want?" She asked him when he didn't look like he was going to say anything anytime soon.

"All of my fangirls are trying to get me to eat lunch with them. You seem to be the only non-fangirl I have that can stand up for herself," Sasuke started saying as he looked at her.

"And? What's your point?" Serena asked before taking a bite of some rice.

"I'm staying here with you," Sasuke said as he plopped down in between the tree and the swing Serena was sitting on.

Serena started choking on the rice in her mouth and had to pound her fist on her chest to clear her throat before turning to Sasuke with an annoyed expression.

"You are not going to use me as a shield just because I'm a strong, non-fangirl! Now go away and let me finish my lunch in peace," She snapped at him as she used her hand to shoo him away.

"Make me! Besides I'm not doing anything to you. You can just sit there and finish your lunch and I'll just sit here quietly and enjoy the scenery," Sasuke said simply.

"Chicken-ass haired jerk," Serena hissed at him before she turned back to her food and resumed eating.

"Hn," was all Sasuke uttered before he started to scrutinize her as she ate.

"Why do you wear that cloak? Don't you get hot?" Sasuke couldn't help but ask.

"I thought you said you were going to be quiet while I eat?" Serena countered with a question of her own after she took a gulp of water.

"I can't ask questions?" Sasuke re-countered with his question.

"I wear this cloak because it's my travel cloak and haven't had the time to take it off and stow it away," Serena just answered with a sigh.

"Well you have time now-why not take it off now?" Sasuke pointed out.

"Because I don't want to. Now can you shut up so I can get back to eating?" Serena snapped gritting her teeth as she glared at him.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and nodded and Serena once again turned back to her food.

Once done, Serena put her bento back together and got off of the swing to take the few steps over to her horse and stowed the bento and chopsticks in her knapsack behind the saddle. Opening another bag she took out two apples to feed her horse.

"Hey, boy, got a treat for you," Serena said as she held one apple under the horse's nose and mouth.

The horse's ears perked up as he smelled the treat and ate the apple out of Serena's hand.

"What's the name of your horse?" Sasuke asked curiously.

"Drys, if you must know," Serena turned and answered.

Then Sasuke got up and walked up to Serena with one of his hands held out.

"What?" Serena asked not knowing what the chicken haired boy was after.

"May I feed that other apple to your horse?" he muttered. Secretly he liked horses all shapes and sizes.

"You want to feed Drys an apple?" Serena asked her voice full of doubt as she raised an eyebrow.

"Is it a crime?" Sasuke countered.

Serena narrowed her eyes suspiciously before surrendering the apple over to Sasuke's hand. "Just don't do anything to my horse," she said before stepping aside.

So Sasuke, under the wary gaze of Serena, fed Drys the apple while petting his nose and neck.

_"I guess he's not so bad. No wait! Stop it Serena! Remember your rules,"_ Serena thought as she mentally slapped herself in the face.

Then the bell rang telling everyone to get to class and Serena took it as a signal to walk up to Drys and lead him by the reigns over to the swing and tie the reigns on the rope of the swing before heading back inside the academy with the Uchiha trailing behind.

Ren: "That's my first chappie, hope you like it."

Sasuke: "Read and Review please."


	3. Hatake Kakashi’s Bell Test

Ren: "I'm back!"

Naruto: "Ren does not own me if she did she would be a multibillionaire."

* * *

**-Chapter 2: Hatake Kakashi's Bell Test-**

"Ugh, where is he? Our sensei is late!" Sakura huffed out in a pissed off tone.

The four genin of Team 7 was currently the last team waiting for their sensei in Iruka's classroom. Let me tell you what everyone is doing, shall I?

Sasuke Uchiha happened to be the only one sitting at a desk with his arms propped up and folded hands over his mouth. You could tell how annoyed he was by the narrowing of his eyes.

Sakura Haruno was pacing the floor at the front of the classroom muttering incoherent words no one could understand making everyone question her sanity.

Naruto Uzumaki was standing on a chair in front of the door putting an eraser at the top of the door as a prank for their very late sensei.

And then there's Serena Drystilia. Serena was currently sitting on the window sill at the back of the classroom gazing out over the village. Her right leg was propped up with her left arm on top of her right knee. Her left leg was dangling outside the window with her right arm slung across her waist and her ponytail hung on the inside of the classroom.

After Sakura's little outburst Serena didn't bother to hide her rolling her eyes.

"And what are you rolling your eyes for?" Sakura snapped as she pointed at Serena causing the two boy genin on the team to turn and look at her.

"Just at the fact at how mentally retarded you are," Serena droned monotonously not even bothering to stop looking out the window.

"WHAT!?" Sakura shouted a tick mark on her overly large forehead.

"I mean c'mon! Am I the only one who actually knows something about our Sensei?" Serena drawled as she turned and finally looked at the three genin.

"From the blank looks you guys are giving me I would say yes. I can't believe this! Hatake Kakashi is known to be at LEAST an hour late than the set time. I've only been in this village for what? Two hours? And I know this and you guys have been living in this village for how many years?" Serena said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

The others felt a bit embarrassed at this and then couldn't help but sweatdrop as Serena fell silent and went back to staring out the window.

Then Serena suddenly snapped her head at the door as she all of a sudden felt a chakra signature outside the door. Wondering what held Serena's immediate attention the others turned just in time to see a hand wrap around the door, Naruto had finished setting up.

The door slid open to reveal a male head with half of his face covered by a black mask and his hitae-ate covering his left eye and spiky silver hair stood in random spikes on top of his head.

The head of the assumed team's sensei had stuck itself inside the room just in time for the eraser to drop on top of his head creating a cloud of faint chalk dust around his head. After that he just stood their doing nothing causing the four genins to sweatdrop.

_"And he's a jounin?"_ Sasuke, Sakura, and Serena thought with disdain.

Naruto on the other hand found this amusing in some way and showed it by pointing at the head of the jounin and with a chuckle shouted, "Haha, I got you Sensei!"

"Hm, and my first impression of you four is you are all nothing but a bunch of losers," the jounin said slowly.

Serena sighed in irritation shaking her head.

"Meet me on the roof," was all the jounin said after that before disappearing from the door.

Seeing no one else making a move, Serena decided to be the first to do something. So she hopped off the window sill and made her way out of the classroom.

Then Sasuke got up and followed which resulted in Sakura following him and Naruto following her.

So the order went: Jounin….Serena….Sasuke….Sakura…..and Naruto.

Kicking the door open with her foot, Serena stepped outside to see their sensei casually sitting on the railing opposite the door with a serene view of Konoha behind him.

Kakashi himself was studying each of his supposed students trying to figure them out as if they were a complex puzzle he was trying to solve.

_"So she's the new newbie in town? From what I hear she just showed up two hours ago from out of nowhere. Took and aced the test in 5 minutes with the Hokage himself. Rumors also say that she's Serena Drystilia, the Wandering Kunoichi. If that the case then she's had more experience out in the ninja world than the other three. If they actually become my team, I may just have her help me train them. I can just look into her eyes and tell that she's a strong, intelligent, and powerful kunoichi that holds herself proudly,"_ Kakashi thought.

Kakashi watched as Serena took quick, confident steps toward the stairs in front of him and sat down on the top step with her legs propped up, one arm draped over her knee caps and the other cupping her cheek and resting her elbow on top of the arm on her knees.

Kakashi's eyes then moved over to Sasuke.

_"Ah, Sasuke Uchiha the avenger. One of the two sole survivors of the Uchiha Clan massacre and a prodigy in the clan itself. I heard he's very arrogant and cold hearted though. If we become a team well have to get him to open up more to be a more cooperative teammate,"_ Kakashi summarized in his hand.

Kakashi watched as Sasuke walked and sat down on the top step as well next to Serena on her left with his legs propped up and his elbows on his thighs with his hands folded over his mouth. Kakashi couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the Uchiha. Usually the boy wouldn't go anywhere NEAR a female with a twenty foot pole if he could help it and her he was, casually sitting not 10 inches away from one that's the new genin in town.

Kakashi glance back at Serena who was glancing at everything in a bored manner.

_"What'd you do to get Sasuke to like you?"_ Kakashi wondered.

Then Kakashi spotted Sakura taking her seat on the next step diagonally from Serena after giving the said girl a glare that Serena either chose to ignore or not notice.

_"Hm, she's kinda odd with the pink hair and from the looks she's giving Sasuke and the glares at Serena for sitting next to the Uchiha even though it was Sasuke who chose to sit next to Serena I'm guessing she's another fangirl,"_ Kakashi thought with a sweatdrop.

Lastly was Naruto who chose to plop down on the same step Sakura was on just diagonally from Sasuke.

_"I heard that he learned a jounin level jutsu and defeated Mizuki with it who was after the forbidden scroll. Nice job, Naruto,"_ Kakashi thought as he looked at Naruto a small grin concealed behind his mask.

Seeing as how none of the four genin weren't going to say anything anytime soon, Kakashi decided to kick things off first.

"Alright," He started and continued, "Let's start off with introductions. Like what's your name? What are your likes and dislikes? Hobbies? And what are your dreams for the future?"

The genin sweatdropped.

"Uh, why don't you go first and show us how it's done, Sensei?" Sakura suggested.

"Huh, oh, alright. My name is Hatake Kakashi, Likes and dislikes? Dunno. Hobbies? Don't really have any. Dreams? Don't feel like telling you," Kakashi said.

"So all we really learned was your name," Serena didn't really bother to hide the deadpan in her voice when she spoke.

"Yeah? So?" Kakashi questioned.

Serena rolled her eyes.

"Alright, your guy's turn. Uh, blondie how about you go first?" Kakashi said trying to get things rolling.

"Uh, me? Alright my name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen and I hate having to wait the extra three minutes for the ramen to cook. My hobbies are comparing the different flavors of ramen and my dream is to become Hokage. Yeah, that way everyone will stop disrespecting me and treat me like I'm a somebody, somebody important," Naruto said loudly all the while fidgeting with his hitae-ate on his forehead.

Everyone else but Sasuke sweatdropped.

"You're weird," was all Serena commented as she gave the blonde an odd look.

"Well at least I'm not wearing a mask over my face and have a black cloak on," Naruto defended heatedly.

"Dork, you've got an ORANGE JUMPSUIT ON!!! And at least I'm not some ramen obsessed idiot that can't even say a word in a normal volume of voice," Serena snapped as she reached past Sasuke and bonked Naruto on the head.

"Let's move on, shall we?" Kakashi cut in rubbing the back of his head.

"Uh, Pinky, how about you go next?" Kakashi said to Sakura.

Sakura scowled at the nickname.

"Well my name is Haruno Sakura. My likes are (Looks at Sasuke and giggles). My hobbies are (looks at Sasuke again and giggles again). And my dream is to (Looks at Sasuke and squeals)," was Sakura's oh so great response.

Sasuke glanced Sakura in annoyance while Serena was fake gagging.

"And your dislikes?" Kakashi prodded.

"NARUTO AND SERENA!!!" Sakura deadpanned making Kakashi and Naruto sweatdrop.

_"Girls like her care more about boys like Sasuke than being a kunoichi these days,"_ Kakashi thought scratching his head.

"I hate you, too, Pinky," Serena droned monotonously as she rolled her eyes.

"Don't call me that!" Sakura snapped glaring at Serena.

"Well what else am I supposed to call you? Fangirl? Forehead girl? Cotton Candy Chick? Cause you certainly look like it!" Serena snapped back with a glare of her own.

The tension between the two was so thick sparks of lightning shot through the air between the two as they growled at each other.

"Ah, ladies, ladies! Let's save that energy for another time, shall we?" Kakashi cut in with an even bigger sweatdrop.

_"Geeze, they fight just as much as Sasuke and Naruto,"_ he thought.

"Ok, next, chicken hair," Kakashi said pointing at Sasuke.

Sasuke scowled at the nickname.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I dislike many things and I don't have any hobbies. There's an addition to my list of the few things I like but I'm not going to tell you what it is. My dream isn't just a dream for it will one day become a reality. I am going to restore my clan….and kill a certain someone," Sasuke said darkly.

Sakura looked at Sasuke like he just asked her to marry him. Naruto had a blank face, Serena had _"Whoop-dee-fucking-doo"_ look on her face and Kakashi had a suspicious look on his face.

_"I knew it…"_ Kakashi thought.

_"Ramen, Ramen, Ramen,"_ was Naruto's.

_"Sasuke-kun is so COOL!"_ Sakura squealed in her head.

_"This is SO BOOORING!"_ Serena thought as she drummed her fingers on her cheek.

"And last but not least, newbie it's your turn," Kakashi said directing everyone's attention to the raven haired kunoichi.

"My name is Drystilia Serena. My likes and dislikes are none of your business. My hobbies I don't feel like telling you and I'm not going to tell you what my dream is because it doesn't concern you," Serena merely said.

_"So she's a secretive person, eh?"_ Kakashi thought as he surveyed Serena.

Sasuke glanced at Serena out of the corner of his eye. _"I wonder what she's hiding?"_ he thought.

Sakura scowled at seeing Sasuke's attention was solely on Serena and not on her.

_"What does she got that I don't?"_ Sakura screeched in her head.

_"She's kinda cool in a dark, scary way,"_ thought Naruto.

"I have a question for you," piped up Kakashi as he looked at Serena.

"Fire away," was all Serena said.

"Why do they call you the Wandering Kunoichi? I've always wondered," Kakashi asked curiously.

"I was wondering when that question was going to pop up," Serena commented with a smirk.

"Well I suppose the reason why they call me that is because I wander from village to village and country to country to learn new jutsus and fighting styles that I can apply to my own skills as a kunoichi," answered Serena simply.

"You mean you've been wandering around the countries all this time?" Sakura gasped in shock.

Kakashi, Sakura, Naruto, even Sasuke were in awe at this.

"Hai," Serena simply answered.

"What are the countries you've visited so far? And how long have you been traveling?" Kakashi questioned.

"Well, I've been traveling since I was 4 years old and if you count this country, I've visited all of them," Serena answered the questions.

"A-All of them? And since you were 4 years old?" Naruto echoed the question that was running through everyone else's mind.

Sakura humped. "How do we know that's true? For all we know you could just be saying that," Sakura accused suspiciously.

"Alright, you want proof? I'll give you proof," Serena said indignantly.

Serena reached inside her cloak, around to the scroll containers at the back of her waistband and opened the scroll container second from the right side. Taking out a heavily rolled up scroll, she closed the scroll container and brought out for everyone to see.

"Is that a storage scroll?" Kakashi inquired.

"Yeah, makes everything convenient when you have to pack all your belongings but want to be able to use your hands in case of a bandit all of a sudden attacking you or something," Serena answered as she opened the scroll trying to find the compartment she wanted. Everyone took note of that.

"I know it's in here somewhere," they heard Serena mumble as she continued unwinding the scroll.

"Ah, here it is!" Serena exclaimed when she finally found it.

Biting her thumb enough to draw blood, Serena smeared her thumb across the compartment and then she dropped the scroll onto the step in front of her before the compartment widened in a puff of smoke as it opened.

Serena reached in the compartment and pulled out a medium sized red drawstring pouch and then made a tiger hand seal and touched the compartment to close it. Serena rolled the scroll back up and returned it to its scroll container. Serena then reached up to her forehead to take off her leaf hitae-ate and showed it to everyone.

"My hitae-ate of Konoha. Shinobi who do not choose the path of a missing-nin, and wish to go to join other countries are allowed to keep their hitae-ates from the previous country they used to live and serve under and I kept every single one," Serena explained and put it down on the step in front of her.

To prove her point further, Serena undid the drawstring pouch and began to take out what revealed to be _more_ hitae-ates saying each name of the village and the name of the country it resided in,

_"Konohagakure, _**Land of Fire**,

_Kirigakure_, **Land of Mist**,

_Takigakure_, **Land of Waterfall**,

_Sunagakure_, **Land of Wind**,

_Otogakure_, **Land of Rice**,

_Kusagakure_, **Land of Grass**,

_Amegakure_, **Land of Rain**,

_Kumogakure_, **Land of Cloud**,

_Iwagakure_, **Land of Rock**,

_Hoshigakure_, **Land of Bears**,

_Yukigakure_, **Land of Snow**,

and _Getsugakure_, **Land of Moon**.

Those are all the villages that have shinobi in it and or hasn't been wiped out by other countries. I've also been to other villages that don't have shinobi in it.

Those being the Land of Birds, Land of the Claw, Land of the Fang, Land of the Honey, Land of Red Beans, Land of Sea, Land of Stone, Land of Swamps, Land of Tea, Land of Udon, Land of Valleys, Land of Vegetables, and Land of Waves. I've also visited the ruins of the Village Takumi and to the villages Tonbogakure, and Kumirigakure," Serena finished as she looked at all of the hitae-ates.

When she looked up she saw that even Sasuke couldn't keep a look of impressiveness off of his face as he looked as Serena's collection. The only one who didn't look convinced was yet again, Sakura.

"Yeah, but for all we know you could have just stolen those from other ninja," Sakura pointed out.

Serena shook her head.

"Shinobi are required to carve their names on the back of the metal plates of their hitae-ates before their first mission outside of their village. It's so should a country's shinobi be tortured beyond recognition before death the country's people would be able to identify who that shinobi was and be able to put that shinobi or kunoichi's name on their headstone for when they are buried. If someone were to steal a shinobi's hitae-ate, they would have to scratch out the previous owner's name and carve their own name into it.

I bet if you take off the cloth on all of my hitae-ates and look at the back of the metal plates you'll find not one name scratched out on them. The only one that would be blank is the one I got from Konoha and that is because I have just gotten this hitae-ate and haven't had the time to carve my name in it. Also we've not even gone on one mission yet let alone one outside the village," Serena explained.

"Kakashi-sensei is that true?" Sakura asked their sensei who nodded.

"Yes it is true, I even have my name on mine. If you still don't believe her then take off the cloth of Serena's hitae-ates and see for yourself," Kakashi answered.

Sakura grabbed the one from Suna and began to take off the cloth of the hitae-ate. Naruto and Sasuke also took one to see for themselves. Slowly one by one, each cloth was taken away and the back of the metal plates of each hitae-ate present revealed a name in Serena's loopy, cursive handwriting, as it was engraved legibly on the silver piece of metal.

_Drystilia, Serena _

Serena then felt that this was enough information from her so she put all of her hitae-ates back together and returned them to the drawstring pouch with the exception of her Konoha one. Reopening the compartment in her storage scroll after she took the scroll out and put the drawstring pouch inside the said compartment and stowed the scroll away after sealing the once more said compartment.

After re-tying her leaf hitae-ate to her forehead she turned her attention to Kakashi with a blank expression.

"So what now, Kakashi-sensei?" She asked the copy-nin scarecrow trying to move on with the meeting.

With the attention back on him, Kakashi spoke, "Tomorrow we will have a mission, so pack your things and meet me at Training Grounds number 7 at dawn."

"A mission? What kind?" Sakura said slowly as she blinked in puzzlement.

Serena had a suspicious look _"Must be some kind of test mission so he can get to know our skills better,"_ She thought.

Sasuke just clenched his fists tighter and narrowed his eyes while Naruto had a far off look on expression, probably daydreaming about ramen or being Hokage.

Kakashi chuckled. "If I tell you, you're not going to like it," he said in a singsong voice.

"Just tell us," Sasuke growled impatiently.

"Out of the 27 genin to graduate from the Ninja Academy only 9 of you will pass, I need to test you," Kakashi said with a smirk.

Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto looked outraged where as Serena looked like she had just figured something out.

_"I knew it! He's going to test us, the question is, is what is he going to test us on?"_ Serena mused in silence.

Suddenly Sakura spoke indignantly, "Wait a minute! I thought we already took the test back in the academy!?"

Serena, who thought the question was the stupidest question she ever heard, slapped a hand on her forehead as she rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"The test back in the academy wasn't really what you'd call a "Test" it was really more of a pop quiz," Serena explained with Kakashi nodding in the background.

"A quiz?" Naruto said slowly as he along with Sasuke and Sakura looked at Serena in question.

"Yeah, it's a trial run to see who are the next best possible candidates that could withstand the horrors and pressures of being a shinobi," Serena explained even further.

"Couldn't have said it better myself, Serena-san," Kakashi commented.

Serena rolled her eyes.

"Can you at least give us a hint on what you want to test us on?" She questioned the jounin.

"That would defeat the purpose of the test, Serena-san," Kakashi merely responded his eye in an upside down u, as the folds of his mask changed to give the foursome the impression he was grinning cheekily at Serena as he waggled a finger at Serena disapprovingly.

"That's just a mysterious way for saying _'I'm to lazy to tell you, so no,'_" Serena deadpanned and Kakashi sweatdropped.

_"She's only known me for five minutes and she's already got me figured out that quickly? Damn!"_ Kakashi thought.

"Alright, that's all for today, you can go off and do your own thing now. Oh, and one more thing, don't eat breakfast tomorrow or you'll puke," Kakashi said in a deadly voice.

"So stuff your face tonight to get as much energy as you can for tomorrow," Serena drawled as she stood up.

Kakashi sweatdropped once more and stared at Serena. Said person just turned around and walked back inside the school building.

_"Next task of the day, finding a place to stay and getting some food,"_ Serena thought walking out of the doors to the academy the others not far behind.

"See you tomorrow Serena-chan," Naruto hollered even though she was standing not 3 feet away from the three genin.

"Whatever," Serena droned and walked away towards Drys.

* * *

Ren: "And that's the end of Chappie 2." 

Sasuke: "R&R, peoples!"


	4. Hatake Kakashi's Bell Test prt 2

Ren: "I'm back, peoples!"

Sasuke: "Ren does not own Naruto, if she did she would be a multibillionaire."

* * *

**-Chapter 3: Kakashi's Bell Test part 2-**

Serena led Drys, her horse, through the crowded and bustling streets of Konoha as she searched for an apartment.

"There's gotta be something somewhere," Serena mumbled as she looked at the sides of the streets searching tediously for apartment complexes.

"What are you looking for?" a voice spoke causing Serena to turn.

Serena rolled her eyes and sighed when she saw that the speaker was none other than Sasuke. Whoop-dee-fucking-doo, eh?

"What are you stalking me now?" Serena drawled in annoyance and then glared at the Uchiha.

"Are you always this sarcastic?" Sasuke countered as he walked up to the raven haired kunoichi.

"Are you always this annoying? Go away and train or something, I've got stuff to do!" Serena snapped and then led Drys away in an effort to get away from the Uchiha.

"Not until you answer my questions!" Sasuke fired back falling in step next to the peeved Drystilia.

"Oh, and what makes me worthy of the oh so mighty Uchiha Sasuke to answer his questions?" Serena questioned and resumed in looking around for an apartment complex.

"Since you showed me that you are obviously not a fangirl and actually take the life a of a kunoichi seriously. It's rare for me to find one of those," Sasuke answered.

"Gee, aren't I the special one?" Serena said her voice oozing with sarcasm.

"And apparently sarcastic," Sasuke added.

Serena rolled her eyes at the understatement.

"So what is it that you wanted to ask me? I'll warn you right now, any question I feel that I don't have to answer I won't say anything to," Serena said cutting to the chase.

"Well first of all what are you looking for?" Sasuke found himself asking bewilderedly as he watched Serena look around.

"Well I did just arrive in this village 4 hours ago! Obviously, I'm looking for an apartment complex to rent and stay in," Serena answered as they continued down a street.

"Then you are heading in the wrong direction," Sasuke told her as he halted to a stop.

Serena stopped and sighed.

"Then someone should fire the person who drew my map of Konoha," She said bluntly as she took out the said map from another pocket inside her cloak and opened it and squinted at it.

"Let me see it," Sasuke said holding out a hand for the map.

Serena surrendered the map over to the Uchiha and looked over his shoulder at the navigational paper.

Sasuke, conscious of Serena's close proximity to his person, hid a blush by looking at the map and sweatdropped as he saw the year date it was made in.

"No wonder this map sucks, it's five years old. Konoha has completely changed since then," Sasuke explained before tearing the map up.

"Well then do you know where the apartments are?" Serena asked crossing her arms on the inside of her cloak.

"Yeah, but I'll only lead you to them if you talk me into it," Sasuke said with a smirk stuffing his hands in his pockets.

Serena looked at him suspiciously with a raised eyebrow.

_"What could he want? Well it is a rumor that the Uchiha's excel in fire jutsus, those are the only jutsus I don't know, he could help me,"_ Serena considered in her head with a blank expression.

"How about we make a deal?" Serena offered.

"I'm listening," Sasuke said with a neutral expression.

"I heard that Uchiha's excel in fire jutsus, correct?" Serena stated.

Sasuke nodded confused as to where this was going.

"Well, I'm known as the Wandering Kunoichi, I've wandered around learning many jutsus and techniques that not even the Hokage would have the slightest clue of. I could help Kakashi by training you leaving Kakashi to focus on Sakura and Naruto and you show me where the apartments are, help me move in, and teach me fire jutsus. It may seem like an unfair trade but trust me when I say my training would be worth more than my three requests combined," Serena offered.

_"That's not a bad idea,"_ Sasuke pondered.

"Deal," Sasuke agreed with a nod.

"Then lead the way, if we can find an apartment and move in, in time, we could start training afterwards," Serena said.

Happy about that idea, Sasuke turned around and started with Serena following. As they were walking, Serena reached in another pocket underneath her cloak and produced a blank card and gave it to Sasuke.

"Channel chakra into that card. I need to know what your 2nd affinity would be if you have one. Obviously your 1st one is fire," Serena said.

"Affinity?" Sasuke questioned confused.

"There are five basic elements. Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, and Lightning. Each shinobi or kunoichi has a distinct chakra pattern that allows them use an element more effectively than other shinobi, this being called an affinity. Some shinobi may have 1 affinity, 2, 3 affinities, I've gone so far as to see a couple of shinobi have all 5. There are also other affinities if you combine the five elements, such as ice from wind and water, and then there's also sand, mist, metal and wood jutsus," Serena explained.

"So what are your affinity or affinities?" Sasuke prodded curiously.

"I have 3 affinities, that's earth, water, and wind. Water being my primary affinity, Wind secondary, and Earth third. But that also means I can do sand and ice jutsus too, from combining earth and wind and water and wind," Serena said.

"But just because I don't have an affinity in lightning or fire doesn't mean I can't learn them. I can still use them just not as efficiently as someone who as the affinity of fire or lightning," Serena said quickly so he wouldn't get confused.

Sasuke nodded and channeled chakra into the card. The paper wrinkled.

Serena nodded. "That means that your second affinity is lightning, so I'll need to teach you lightning jutsus first before any other elemental jutsu. How is your chakra control would you say?" Serena asked. She needed to what his skill level was to know where to go with his training.

"I couldn't tell you," Sasuke replied not really knowing.

"Ok, have you been taught tree walking at least?" Serena tried again.

"What's tree walking?" Sasuke asked confused.

"Guess that answers my question, ok so we'll work on that first before anything else," Serena said more to herself than to the onyx eyed boy.

Soon, the two found an apartment complex and Serena tied Drys to the fence out front and walked inside with Sasuke trailing behind. No one was behind the desk when the two walked up to it so Serena banged on the clerk bell and soon a young man that looked to be 16 appeared with a grin on his face with chocolate brown spiky hair, hazel eyes, and a muscular lean build.

_"Please don't be a fanboy, please don't be a fanboy,"_ Serena silently prayed in her head.

The guy took one look at her and blushed.

_"Great, he's a fanboy,"_ Serena grumbled silently and sighed.

"Um, I would like to rent an apartment if at all possible," Serena inquired.

"Ah, yes, of course we have some free rooms. My name is Zack and I'm the landlord, now rent is 300 dollars _(A?N: I'm using the American currency here because I don't understand the Ryo value for Japan)_" the landlord known as Zack said.

Serena nodded and spoke, "Give me the best room you've got and I'll pay the required amount."

Soon Serena had a room and with the help of Sasuke all of her stuff was taken out of her storage scroll and assigned a place in the apartment.

The apartment itself wasn't that bad if you took the time to look at it.

There were four rooms, 1 being a kitchen/dining room/living room, 1 spare bedroom, 1 master bedroom and the last room was the bathroom.

The kitchen/dining room/living room was a modest room. On the left wall from the door was a kitchen sink and counter top. Next to the countertop was a good stove and refrigerator. Above the sink, counter, and stove were cabinets to store canned and dry foods, and dishes and such. In front of the kitchen sink, counter, and stove was a round, mahogany table that was low to the floor and could sit at it by kneeling on your knees on the creamy white pin cushions.

At the back wall was a sliding glass door and black wire balcony that gave a nice view overlooking the village and part of the forest. Hanging in front of the sliding glass door was a white-semi-see-through curtain to give the room at least SOME privacy.

On the right of the door was hallway that led to three doors, two on the left and one on the right. The first door on the left revealed a bathroom with black marble tiles, counter top, toilet, and shower walls in the one stand up shower stall that had a silver, non-rusting hose, shower head. The walls were white and a mirror took up the whole upper half of the wall above the sink and toilet which was perched snugly in between the shower stall and sink and a towel rack mounted into the wall in front of the toilet. _(A/N: What a coincidence that's exactly how my bathroom looks like! –Wink-)_

The next door on the left after the bathroom was a spare bedroom in modest size but currently had no furniture in it and a curtain less window on the wall opposite the door. A closet with a plain, paper white and sliding, japanese style door took its post on the right wall of the door.

The lonely door on the right you could tell was the master bedroom just by the size which was equivalent to the guest room times two.

This room did have furniture in it. To the left of the door was a simple mahogany desk and chair on the left wall was a closet that took up the whole wall, the door being the same as the one in the guest room just bigger. On the wall opposite the door was a sliding glass door two times bigger than the one in the living room but this one had non-see through white drapes in front of it, beyond the sliding glass door you could glimpse a black wire balcony with a view of mostly the forest surrounding the village with part of the village peeking in on the right. On the right wall in front of the sliding glass door was a queen sized bed with a white comforter, sheets and pillow cases.

On the ceiling above the bed was a skylight, curtain less window that gave a nice view of the big blue sky.

"Wow, not bad," Serena couldn't help but comment as she looked over everything when she and Sasuke were done unpacking said boy had currently claimed a spot on Serena's white couch that had been placed in front of the sliding glass door in the living room.

"To be honest I didn't think we'd actually get done this fast," Serena added to the boy and then disappeared down the hall to look in the rooms and bathroom.

_"I'm going to have to get furniture for that guest room in case someone needs the room to crash in. But I can do that later when I'm more adjusted to this village,"_ Serena noted in the back of her head when she looked into the empty guest room.

"Ok, so first things first I need to go grocery shopping so I can have food to eat tonight. I also need to take Drys down to the stables I doubt I can keep a horse at an apartment, after that we can get started on your training. You can either stay here and entertain yourself in some way or form while I go out or come with me," Serena said not really caring about what the boy chose to do or not.

Turning on her heel, Serena strode to the door and put her sandals on and debated in her head on whether to take her cloak with her.

_"Well the villagers are going to see my outfit sooner or later so I might as well let them get used to seeing me in this now,"_ Serena finally concluded as she eyed the cloak still clasped around her neck.

Nodding her head at the conclusion she wasted no time in taking the cloak off and hung the cloak on a coat rack beside the door. Sasuke couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the kunoichi's attire and curiously eyed the symbol on her back.

_"What symbol is that? I've never seen like that before and you'd think she was going into war what with all of those weapons,"_ he mused.

Serena opened the door with the apartment key in her other hand at her side and turned and raised an eyebrow at the Uchiha.

"So are you coming or not?" She asked in a bored manner.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted and turned his head to look out the sliding glass door.

"Fine, just don't break anything," Serena said shrugging and turned and walked out.

_"Thank Kami I didn't unpack all of my stuff or Kami knows what conclusions or assumptions he'd come up with from snooping through my stuff if I did," _Serena thought, mentally rolling her eyes and closing and locking the front door at the same time.

_An hour and a half later….._

Sasuke was lying on the couch after a fruitless search around the apartment trying to see what he could dig up about the new kunoichi when he heard footsteps outside the front door and a key sliding into the lock on the door.

He sat up when he heard a muffled curse from the other side and then the lock turned and the door opened but Serena remained outside kneeling on the ground.

When Serena had gone out she first gave Drys to the stablemen down at the gates after giving the said men on who she and the horse was, renting out a stall and telling them how to care for her horse.

Then she went to a grocery store not far from her apartment complex and retrieved and paid for the needed groceries. On her way back to the apartment she ran into an irritating distraction in the form of Haruno Sakura and that one squealing, blonde Sasuke fangirl. Both had stumbled upon the kunoichi and both wanted to get back at her for telling them off in front of Sasuke in the classroom and on the rooftop minus the blonde fangirl because she wasn't there on the rooftop.

So they both trailed after Serena throwing insult after insult at the said kunoichi and sometimes at each other when they came upon a disagreement between the two. Sometimes Serena would throw an insult right back at the two and other times she would just ignore the insult if she found it too pathetic to counter or if they were insulting each other.

Honestly, they were giving Serena a migraine and they were so annoying! Couldn't they take a hint to get lost or jump in a river and drown or something? They sound like a bunch of birds! Not the sweet-I-don't-care-about-you-so-I'm-just-going-to-fly-away-and-ignore-you type of birds but the type that chirp so loudly they won't shut up in the morning even if you threw a kunai at them or went and shook the whole tree!

They even followed her to her apartment, unfortunately, and Serena was so ticked off she was grinding her teeth, stomping her feet, giving off a very tangible killer intent and clutching her grocery bags in her arms so tight that while she was trying to unlock her front door she ripped a big hole in the bottom of one of the bags! Thus the cursing and kneeling on the floor. Kami just seemed to really hate her this day!

Sasuke watched in bewilderment as Serena scampered on the floor, hurriedly but angrily picking up fallen groceries and stuffing them in other bags. His ears finally picking up the bickering voices he knew to be Ino and Sakura just beside the door out of view.

"Where is Sasuke-kun?" he heard Sakura's agonizingly irritating voice bark at the kneeling kunoichi.

"I told you I don' _know_ where he is! I'm not his nanny! And I'm not the type to go seeking out a guy I've only known for half a day! SO SHUT THE HELL UP AND FUCK OFF YOU'RE PISSING ME OFF!!!" He saw Serena turn and shout at them and send them a death glare making her eyes appear black instead of midnight blue.

Yikes! That's one very intense killer intent he felt from her from all the way on the couch and he secretly hoped that it was never directed at him. Ever.

Sasuke sighed unnoticeably by the three bickering kunoichi's.

_"I better help her out, although I wouldn't mind two less fangirls,"_ he thought and got up from the couch.

"I don't care if you think you've got good looks and what does this have to do with Sasuke anyway? You know what I don't even want to know just go away and bug someone else or better yet go crawl under a rock and die!" Serena snapped a comment at them as Sasuke neared the front door.

"What do you mean-" he heard Ino start to say with venom before he decide to cut in and make his presence known.

"What do you two want?" Sasuke droned as he stepped out of the apartment and stood in front of the quizzical Serena and glared at the shocked and surprised Sakura and Ino.

Then Sakura, being the first out of the two to come back to reality, got angry and glared at Serena behind a still glaring Sasuke; Serena herself didn't hesitate to glare right back at the pinkette.

"You Ikeike! You lied! You did too know where Sasuke-kun was, he was in your apartment!" Sakura hissed at the raven haired kunoichi.

"Then take him! I don't care what you do with him if it gets you out of my hair! Kami you're so annoying," Serena shot back through clenched teeth as she shook a fist at Sakura.

"Nani!?" Sasuke, Sakura, and Ino cried in unison.

Serena rolled her eyes and stuffed the last of her fallen groceries in a bag and scooped up her remaining bags in her arms and stood up.

"Why would you give up Sasuke-kun that easily?" Ino asked suspiciously.

"And what about our deal!? If you're backing out now after all I've done to help you then you can just forget about the fire jutsus!" Sasuke growled at Serena as he glared outrageously at the said girl.

"Squealer, do you see me clinging and hanging off of Sasuke-san like you? No! I thought you would've caught on by now that I couldn't care less if Sasuke went around _**naked**_ in my apartment! I'm no fangirl so go ahead and take him and you," Serena turned on to Sasuke and continued her ranting, "It's _your _fanclub that's interrupting our agreement you deal with it! I'm not your bodyguard that flings a kunai at every fangirl that pops up nor am I your servant that you can call on every minute of everyday to help you train! If you want me to train you _ask_ me and keep YOUR fanclub off my back!"

With that Serena turned and marched inside her apartment and slammed her front door closed only to open it again a few seconds later to throw Sasuke's sandals at him and slam the door again and lock it.

Sasuke couldn't keep the shock off of his face as he stared with his mouth open at the door that belonged to the first kunoichi that dared to tell him off! And in front of two fangirls, too!

Said fangirls fumed at seeing the kunoichi not only tell them off, again, but their Sasuke-kun, too! The NERVE! Just because she was the new kunoichi in town and was known to be the Wandering Kunoichi doesn't give her the right to start telling everybody off like that!

Meanwhile, Serena herself was fuming around her kitchen as she put away her purchased groceries in their respective places.

_"Who does he think he is? I'm not his slave! Someone needs to give that Uchiha a good ass-kicking to get him to wake up and realize that you can't always get what you want in life!"_ She growled in her head.

_"And his fangirls piss me off even more! They, too, need a slap in the face or they're not going to last one second out of the village at this rate if they keep slacking off from their training and drooling and chasing off after that teme! Honestly, I don't know __**what**__ they _see _in him!" _Serena screamed in her head as she yanked on her bangs.

_The next day-5:00 a.m…._

Serena rolled out of bed landing on the floor with a thump and a groan.

_"I'll never be a morning person no matter how many times I get up this early!"_ She thought sitting up and rubbing her back.

"Better get ready," She said to the air and got up heading for the bathroom to take a shower.

_At the training grounds…._

Serena was proud to find herself to be the first person to arrive fully clothed and somewhat awake at the training grounds where Team 7 was supposed to meet for the test.

Seeing as how the sky hadn't even begun to lighten yet and wouldn't for another hour and there was no signs of her teammates around Serena settled down in the middle of the clearing with her legs crossed, closed eyes and relaxed her arms in her lap. If you haven't guessed what she was doing she was meditating to keep her control over her chakra better and keeping her emotions and senses in check.

Thirty minutes later Serena was still in that position when she sensed a chakra pattern close by and she snapped open her eyes to see the oh-so-emo Uchiha Sasuke strolling over to her with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

_"Figures, the next person to come just had to be the one I piss off yesterday. Maybe if I go back to meditating he'll leave me alone,"_ Serena thought.

So closing her eyes, Serena started to even her breathing once again. Heh, so much for that idea.

"Hey!" came a grunt from Sasuke's deep baritone voice as he nudged the side of her leg with his toe.

"Nani?" Serena droned keeping her eyes closed and breath even.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

Serena didn't bother to keep her eyes closed sending him a look that read, _"Are you freaking kidding me? Are you __that__ stupid?"_

"Nani?" quipped Sasuke seeing the look.

Serena slapped a hand on her forehead and sighed.

"Lovely, I get stuck on a team with a teammate that doesn't even know how to recognize the art of meditation when he sees it!!" She said to the air as if she were being forced to watch two kids poke each other for 1,000 days non-stop.

Sasuke sweatdropped and mentally kicked himself for failing to realize that is was, indeed, meditation that he had seen Serena do, thinking she was sleeping instead when he saw her.

Serena just sighed and went back to her meditating hoping that by ignoring the Uchiha, said Uchiha would get the message and leaver her alone and find something else to entertain himself.

Sasuke just grunted and stood there looking around the clearing as if expecting Sakura and Naruto to pop out of the trees and bushes any second, now.

_30 minutes later…._

"Morning," Sakura chirped as she dragged her feet towards Sasuke and the still meditating Serena.

"Mornin'" Naruto mumbled as he, too, dragged his feet, rubbing the sand out of his eyes from his slumber.

Sasuke just uttered a grunt in reply while Serena didn't do anything at all. The only way anyone could tell her apart from a statue was the rising and falling of her chest as she breathed.

"Hey! How come she gets to sleep?" Naruto said loudly in a peeved tone when he saw Serena.

"She's meditating, dobe!" Sasuke replied with a sigh.

"Grr, don't call me a dobe, teme!" Naruto snarled at the Uchiha.

"Hey, um, Sasuke-kun? I, um, was wondering that if after the test you would, um, like to go out on a date with me?" Sakura cut in shyly.

"Hn," came the reply.

"That means no in the Universal language of grunts," Serena explained with her eyes still closed.

"Stay out of this!" Sakura hissed at the Drystilia.

Sasuke smirked at the raven-haired kunoichi when no one was looking.

Serena snorted.

"By all means, keep trying. But from what I've seen Sasuke-san act like when it comes to girls like you so far, the day he goes out on a single date with anyone of you squealing fangirls is the day hell freezes over," Serena said as if she was the commenter of some sports tournament or something.

Naruto snorted in amusement and Sasuke didn't even bother to hide his smirk at the flabbergasted Haruno Sakura.

"Aa," Sasuke uttered.

"And that means yes in the Universal language of grunts," Serena explained.

Sakura just huffed, turned around and plopped her bum on the ground to wait for Kakashi, Naruto joined her on the ground but face the opposite direction and tried to stay awake, Sasuke, being Sasuke, just stood in the exact same spot he was in before and Serena continued to meditate.

It would be thirty more minutes later than the time Kakashi set for them to meet at that the scarecrow finally had the decency to show up.

Everyone was doing their own thing until that point in time, Sakura was busy daydreaming and muttering incoherent things making everyone once again, question her sanity, Naruto was sleeping, Sasuke brooding about who-knows-what and Serena-still meditating.

Of course, she would have sensed Kakashi's arrival and it was she that took the first course of action towards him by flinging a kunai at the scarecrow who was only barely able to stop the projectile from impaling him in his only visible eye.

_"He-llo! Not exactly the ideal greeting I was expecting from my students but then again these aren't exactly your average shinobi, here,"_ Kakashi thought in alarm.

Then Kakashi looked down to see who the kunai belonged to and saw Serena standing with her right arm outstretched staring up at him with a blank expression on her face. Everyone else was giving an odd look as if she'd gone mad. Apparently they haven't noticed their sensei yet.

_"That's sad, out of the four genin I have to train and teach only one of them is able to sense chakra signatures," _he thought.

"Eh, Serena, why'd you throw that kunai? We're not under attack or anything," Naruto, who was now awake, asked slowly.

"Use your senses! It seems someone we know finally decided to grace us with his presence, eh Kakashi?" Serena said her eyes trained on the jounin.

The three genin gasped and whipped their heads to where Serena was looking and they saw that, indeed, Kakashi had arrived as he crouched on a low branch of tree twirling Serena's kunai in his hand.

"It's not nice to throw deadly objects at someone, Serena-san," Kakashi finally said in a fake scolding tone and threw her kunai back.

"And it's not nice to stand up your students thirty minutes to an hour later than you set up," Serena fired back while catching the kunai through the loop at the end of the handle with one finger.

As Serena stowed her kunai back into her right kunai pouch, Sakura and Naruto took this time to now yell, "YOU'RE LATE!!!"

"Hehe, well a black cat crossed my path and so I had to take the long way," Kakashi poorly attempted to say as an excuse.

The sweatdrop on his forehead must have gave him away because Sakura and Naruto then proceeded to shout back, "LIAR!!!"

All this time Sasuke just stood there with his bad boy look and glared at the silver haired cyclop. Serena grew a headache from all of the shouting and arguing so she was currently massaging her temples in attempt to make it go away.

Kakashi chuckled and hopped down from the tree.

Striding over to the three stumps at an edge of the clearing he spoke, "Right, well lets get this started, shall we?"

He picked up an alarm clock and fiddled with it for a second and then set it back down on a fourth stump that was lower to the ground than the other three.

"Okay, I've set the timer for noon. The objective is for you to get one of these three bells by noon," Kakashi explained holding up three tiny, silver bells dangling from some red string.

"What you are trying to get us to do will never work, Kakashi! You and I both know that," Serena said quickly catching onto the hidden objective after Kakashi explained the objective.

"Just **how** smart _are_ you? No one can figure out my test that fast and how do you know it will never work?" Kakashi blurted as he stared wide eyed at the kunoichi.

"Yeah, well no other student has been through tests and exercises similar to this one, have they? And the reason why it won't work is because this team has too many differences and strong headed genin on it. Don't get me wrong that not everyone wouldn't agree to do it it's just that I doubt they would be able to catch on in time and create a good enough plan to put it into action to accomplish it. Sasuke's too arrogant and narrow minded, Sakura is jealous and won't get off of cloud nine, and Naruto may be the one that would actually be willing to help but two genin alone against a full fledge jounin that knows countless jutsus and has been through more battle scenarios than one can count won't be enough," Serena explained.

Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto had a bunch of question marks hanging over their heads they looked back forth from genin to jounin and back with mixed emotions.

Naruto sent Sasuke a look that said, _"What the hell are they talking about?"_

Sasuke returned a look that said, _"What makes you think I know?"_

"Well what about you? You're the Wandering Kunoichi for pete's sake! Heck, you've been to more places then I have and have probably been in more battle scenarios than I have and that's saying something! Why can't you help them?" Kakashi pointed out.

"Cause the only one that would even listen to me would be Naruto. Sakura thinks I'm competition in going after Sasuke and Sasuke only wants to get stronger for only Kami-knows-what," Serena said.

"Well then work with what you can with Naruto, and see if the others will be able to catch on. If they fail it's because they were too stupid to see the hidden message and that's they're fault, not yours," Kakashi said.

"But we need at least an three-shinobi team to take on missions and if Naruto and I pass then that still leaves us one less shinobi than required," Serena argued.

"Then try to get someone else to listen to you," Kakashi said bluntly.

Serena sighed and smacked a hand on her forehead.

_"Why me, Kami? Why must you torture and punish me so?"_ She mentally shouted.

Then Sakura stepped into the conversation with a question of her own.

"Wait a minute. You said one of three bells but there are four of us. How can all of us catch a bell and pass when we're one bell short?"

Kakashi chuckled once more.

"You certainly are the brightest kunoichi in the academy, Sakura. You see it is true that only three of you will pass. The one who doesn't get a bell by noon will be tied to one of the stumps and be forced to watch the others eat their lunch I made them and then be sent back to the academy and go through it all over again. Or none of you four may get a bell and you all may be sent back," Kakashi explained cheerily.

Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto stared outrageously at Kakashi and Serena stood off to the side shaking her head.

_"Trust Kakashi to drop the bomb on them with that much intensity,"_ She thought.

"You can fight me however you wish whether it be kunai and or jutsu or none. But I want you to come at me with the intention to kill otherwise this wouldn't be a survival test now will it?" Kakashi said.

"Nani!? But we can't use kunai on you, Kakashi-sensei, you'll get hurt!?" Sakura shrieked.

Serena shot Sakura an odd look.

"Like three genin fresh out of the academy could take on a fully fledged jounin that has had plenty of experience under his belt," Serena drawled her voice dripping with sarcasm as she rolled her eyes.

Sakura flushed and shot a dirty look at the kunoichi.

"What do you mean three?" Sakura hissed.

Serena glanced at Sasuke and Naruto really quickly.

"Correction, my bad, make that one genin. I think Sasuke and Naruto could probably take Kakashi-sensei on," Serena corrected herself.

Sakura deadpanned to the ground while Sasuke, Naruto, and Kakashi looked amused.

"You're part of this team, too, you know, unfortunately," Sakura shot at Serena when she was back on her feet.

"Obviously you're not as bright as everyone says you are. Did you forget who I am?" Serena said in a deadly tone as she drew up to her full height with her arms crossed and a little killer intent let loose.

Sakura gulped and fell silent.

"Yeah, that's what I thought!" Serena droned.

"Also, I doubt a bunch of losers could kill me," Kakashi added his input.

That certainly ticked off Naruto because a few seconds after Kakashi said this, Naruto whipped out a kunai and started to charge at Kakashi with a pissed off look on his face. But as soon as Naruto started to charge he was frozen in place by a hand on his head and another hand holding Naruto's hand that had the kunai to the back of his head.

_"Unbelievable, I didn't even _see_ him move,"_ Sakura thought with shock as she stared at Naruto and Kakashi.

_"Maybe I __will__ get a challenge in this one,"_ Sasuke thought with a smirk.

_"Heh, show off!"_ was Serena's thought.

_"What the-he's so fast!"_ Naruto thought.

"I didn't say start yet, Naruto," Kakashi started before letting Naruto go by giving him a push forward and continued, "Although you did come at me with an intent to kill me so I guess this won't be a _complete_ waste of my time."

Serena rolled her eyes.

"Show off!" She called to him as she looked away and crossed her arms.

"As for you, Wandering Kunoichi," Kakashi started again and turned to look at said kunoichi and continued, "I can't wait to see how strong you are for I _know_ you'll be the one to give me a challenge."

"Hn," Serena grunted.

"Can't say the same for you, Hatake Kakashi, the copy-nin," She taunted the scarecrow.

"So you do your homework, I see," Kakashi chuckled.

"Yeah, I figured it'd be good to have the upper hand by knowing my opponents. Their secrets, skills, and anything else that makes that shinobi a potential pest while they know not one thing when it comes to me. Not even what I like to do in my spare time or where I came from. Do you know anything about me, Kakashi-sensei?" Serena sneered smugly at the jounin.

"Not yet, no. But I will as time goes by." Kakashi stated and then walked back over to the alarm clock.

"Alright the test starts….now!" He said and pushed a button on the clock.

As soon as Serena heard those words, Serena dashed over to Naruto, took his hand and then shot off into the trees pulling a freaking out Naruto with her.

_"What the hell is she doing? And why do we have to run so fast?"_ Naruto thought bewilderedly as he was pulled through the air from tree to tree.

_"She knows something,"_ Sasuke before wordlessly taking to the trees to follow the two teammates.

_"Why am I always getting left behind!?"_ Sakura shrieked in her head and took off after Sasuke.

Kakashi chuckled for the thousandth time. _"I don't know, Serena you may be judging your teammates too soon,"_ He thought.

* * *

Ren: "And there's Chappie 3, folks!"

Sasuke: "R&R, please."

**Glossary**

**Kami-** God, obviously.

**Ikeike-**Bitch (Insult)

**Nani**-What? (Question)

**Kunoichi**-Female Ninja.

**Shinobi**-Male Ninja.


	5. Sparring Frenzies and Troubles

Ren: "Here's Chappie 4!"

Sakura: "Ren does not own Naruto, if she did she would be a multibillionaire."

* * *

**-Chapter 4: Sparring Frenzies and Troubles-**

When Serena and Naruto finally stopped in a clearing half a mile away from Kakashi, Naruto felt like he was going to cough up a lung.

_"Geeze, look at me! I'm close to dieing here, and she looks like she just went for a walk around the block. Can anyone say stamina, much?"_ Naruto thought as he looked at Serena who was patiently waiting for him to catch his breath.

"I'm sorry for dragging you all the way out here like that Naruto. I didn't want to take the chance of Kakashi overhearing us and our chances of getting those bells would then be ruined," Serena explained before Naruto could say anything.

"Oh, well that makes sense, I guess. So do you have some sort of plan or something?" Naruto prodded.

Serena started to speak when they heard a whiney voice call out somewhere close by, "Sasuke-kun! Would you slow down? And why do we have to follow Drystilia-san anyway?"

Serena sighed and looked at Naruto who looked confused.

"Let's wait for them to get here before I say anything, okay?" She suggested and Naruto looked even more puzzled.

"Them? Who's them?" Naruto questioned.

"Naruto, you dobe! You can't even recognize your own teammate's voice when you hear it?" came a deep baritone voice.

Looking in the direction of the voice, Naruto saw Sasuke and a trailing Sakura walk out of the bushes.

"Sasuke-teme! What are you doing here? Serena was going to tell her plan to me! Not you, so get lost," Naruto snarled at the Uchiha.

"Naruto, stop it! It doesn't matter that he followed us as long as he's willing to help us get the bells!" Serena cut in.

"And why would we want to help you? Don't tell me the great-Wandering-Kunoichi can't get a simple bell!" Sakura taunted.

"That's exactly the reason why I didn't even bother trying to talk to you in the first place!" Serena said coldly.

"Huh!?" Sakura gasped out.

Serena rolled her eyes.

"Did you not even listen to what me and Kakashi-sensei were arguing about back in the clearing? Or were you too busy staring at Sasuke-san to listen?" Serena drawled.

"Look, we didn't come all the way out here to argue. So I'm assuming that none of you got what the hidden objective in Kakashi's bell test," Serena said changing the subject.

"What do you mean the hidden objective? We are supposed to get one of those bells and that's it," Naruto said dubiously.

"C'mon, Naruto think! Four genin against a jounin that's had more fighting experience than you have brushed your teeth with only three bells available? Don't you think there's something wrong with that picture? The odds are stacked up way too high for this to be a simple test to send us back to the academy," Serena said exasperatedly.

The looks on the three other genins' faces changed when Serena pointed t his out and so Serena decided to plow onward.

"Kakashi purposely put only three bells in this test, why do you think that is?" She openly questioned.

"To pit us against each other, of course!" Serena rasped out while slapping a hand on her forehead.

Sasuke seemed to have caught on as well but Naruto still looked clueless.

"I still don't get it," he said.

"Teamwork, Naruto! The point is teamwork! Kakashi knew that one of us would fail and he used that disadvantage to get you three to fight each other when really we needed to see past each other's likes and dislikes about the other and work as a cohesive team that works together as one unit," Serena explained.

Now, Naruto knew what was going on.

"So I hope you have a plan to get those bells?" Sasuke finally spoke up. Serena looked taken aback.

_"Well that was easier than I thought,"_ She mused in her head.

"Well, Kakashi is no fool and he'll be bound to sense an illusion right away. So here's what I think we should do-"

And so the planning commenced.

Kakashi was sitting leisurely on one of the stumps reading an orange book when his ears quirked and he looked up to see leaves floating around in a gusty breeze.

_"Hm, this is no ordinary wind. Hey-what's that!? Heh, I see-they'll have to do better than that to get the bells,"_ Kakashi thought and closed his book.

Stowing away said book, Kakashi called out to the clearing and for his undecided students to hear, "You'll have to do better than that!"

Then Kakashi brought his hands in the tiger handsign and muttered with his eye closed, "Kai!"

When he opened his eye nothing changed. There were still leaves and a gusty wind and no one in the clearing.

Kakashi's eye widened in realization.

"What a fake genjutsu? But why would they do that-unless it was merely used as a-" Kakashi started to say but was cut off as he narrowly avoided a folly of kunai and shuriken thrust upon him and had to jump out of the way to dodge them where they buried themselves in a nice little home in the trees and stumps.

"-Distraction!" He finished when he landed a few feet on the ground away from the stumps and looked at the site.

"-Take this!" came a rugged voice that made him turn and catch a punch aimed for his head.

"You know compared to the others, you're a bit weird," Kakashi said to his attacker.

Naruto growled and shot back, "The only thing weird here, is your hair style!"

He then proceeded to thrust a kick at Kakashi's lower abdomen to which Kakashi caught with his other hand.

Sensing something, Kakashi let go of Naruto's hand and foot and jumped to avoid a swipe at his feet from a foot from behind. Flipping away to a safer distance and looked to see a familiar black haired Uchiha taking an offensive stance next to Naruto.

As if a silent signal was passed between the two students, Naruto charged with a kunai and his fingers put in a cross sign.

"_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!_" Naruto shouted.

**POOF!**

A bunch of Naruto clones charged in step with the real Naruto out of the smoke making Kakashi's eye widen once more.

_"What! I thought the clone jutsu was Naruto's worst jutsu! And now I'm suddenly being assaulted by a bunch of clones? And these aren't just simple academy level clones, too. These are real, and solid clones that can act independently from the jutsu user. Is this the jounin level jutsu he learned from the forbidden scroll?" _Kakashi thought.

Suddenly he was surrounded by the Naruto clones with Sasuke standing in between the real Naruto and a clone. Quickly Sasuke started making rapid handsigns that Kakashi immediately recognized.

_"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu! (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)!"_

"What! Genin can't do fire jutsus! It takes up too much chakra!" he said aloud wide eyed before he was plummeted by said jutsu.

When the fireball died down nothing was seen but a big crater in the ground made by Sasuke's fireball and a charcoal black log that crumpled into ash when it fell to the ground.

"A substitution jutsu!" Naruto gasped and started to look around.

_"Where could he be?"_ Sasuke silently questioned looking around as well.

Then a crash through the trees made Sasuke and Naruto's head jerk around in time to see Kakashi roll around on the ground. A rain of kunai and shuriken made Kakashi quickly roll away and spring to his feet only to duck from a right hook from his opponent.

Catching a glimmer of silver metal, he whipped out a kunai to parry with it in a dead lock against another kunai. The folds on Serena's mask shifted to show that she was smirking underneath.

"C'mon, old man! There's gotta be SOME juice left in those old bones of yours," Serena taunted the jounin and then brought up a hand to back hand said jounin.

Catching the hand with his last free hand, Kakashi wasn't able to block the kick to his chest that sent him flying backwards with a grunt.

Digging his heels into the dirt, Kakashi was able to stop his sliding and clutched his chest.

_"Ok, that hurt!"_ He silently grimaced.

He then smirked at the provoking Serena.

"Old bones, eh? Well these old bones might just be the one to bring you down if you don't watch it! What do you say you take off those weights and we take this up a notch?" Kakashi suggested.

Sasuke and Naruto an intake as their eyes widened.

_"She's carrying weights? I didn't even notice,"_ Sasuke thought.

Serena smirked again.

"So you noticed, eh? Alright, I'll take you up on your offer. We shall take this up a notch," She said and got in an offensive stance.

Then Serena pulled back the blue arm cloth on her forearm and placed her index and middle finger on top of the black wrappings just above her right wrist. Then she poured chakra into the wrappings themselves. A few milliseconds later a seal appeared in ocean blue markings with the number 150 in the middle of the seal.

"Weight seals _(A/N: They'll be explained either later on in chapter 6 or maybe 7 it's something I made up so no copying unless I say you can) _? That's what you use? Why not just use ordinary weights?" Kakashi asked befuddled.

"1-it helps with my chakra control a little, and 2-this way you don't have to go in a weapons shop 2-3 times a week to buy heavier weights," Serena explained.

While she was talking, she withdrew some chakra from the seal and the number lowered to 140.

"How much weight do you carry?" Kakashi asked curiously.

"Right now it's at 600 lbs. But I'll need to up the weight on them here soon because I'm adapting to the weight really quickly," Serena responded.

"600 lbs! But that must mean you have 150 lbs n each limb!" Kakashi gasped.

Serena shrugged and did her other arm bringing the weight down to 140 lbs from 150. Repeating the process on her calves each weight seal now had 10 lbs taken off of each limb. Then Serena took an offensive stance once more and stared at Kakashi.

"Ladies first!" Kakashi taunted taking defensive stance.

"Then why aren't you?" Serena threw back.

Kakashi put a hand over his heart.

"Ouch! That hurts me, Serena-san!" He whined.

"And to think I haven't even punched you, yet," Serena drawled.

Kakashi and Serena then charged at each other. Kakashi certainly was quick on his feet for his age but Serena was quicker. Kakashi's eyed widened as he saw Serena suddenly in front of his face with a right hand pulled back in a prepared punch.

_"What!? How can she be this fast? She only took off 40 lbs altogether! She shouldn't be this fast!"_ He thought.

He jumped out of the way of the punch and landed a ways away facing Serena's side that still had her arm outstretched in the punch she had thrown earlier. Making rapid handsigns that only Sasuke recognized for which he tried to warn Serena by shouting, "Drystilia, get out of the way!"

_"Katon: Karyu Endan (Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet)_," Kakashi chanted.

Then he gathered chakra in his chest and spat a tongue of flames at Serena and added more chakra to make it hotter.

Serena jumped out of the way and then while still in mid air she turned towards Kakashi making handsigns that neither Naruto nor Sasuke recognized but Kakashi certainly did. In an effort to counter Serena he rapidly made handsigns and finished just a tad second after Serena.

_"Suiton: Suigadan (Water Release: Water Fang Bullet),_" Serena called before her chest expanded and her cheeks puffed out.

Yanking down her mask in a flash, she quickly spat out a bullet of water that sped at Kakashi and then pulled her mask back up.

_"Futon: Renkudan (Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet,)_" Kakashi called and spat back a bullet of air that collided with the water bullet making water rain down on Kakashi, Sasuke, and Naruto forming a puddle on the ground.

Kakashi looked smug at his accomplishment to stop the water bullet as Serena landed on the ground with a smirk of her own.

This time Serena's handsigns were too fast for Kakashi's eye to follow. But his breath hitched in his throat when Serena called out the name of the attack,

_"Sensatsu Suisho (Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death)."_

Water from the whole puddle rose up that had formed from the water bullet earlier and froze in needles before flinging themselves at the cyclop jounin.

"Kuso!" Kakashi cursed making rapid handsigns of his own.

_"Doton: Doryuheki (Earth Release: Earth Release Wall),"_ He chanted before jumping back and spitting mud on the ground.

A split second before the needles made contact with Kakashi, a great, big wall of mud and dirt rose up several feet into the air and effectively stopped the needles in their tracks. Suddenly Kakashi received a kick in his side that sent him sprawling to the ground. Then another kick sent him flying high into the sky.

"Wow, can you believe this? Serena has actually got Kakashi-sensei on the ropes! GO Serena, kick his ass!" Naruto shouted as he and Sasuke watched.

"I guess you'd expect no less from the Wandering Kunoichi," Sasuke commented.

**KICK! KICK! KICK!**

Serena kept kicking Kakashi higher and higher up into the air as she came up from below him. Then she disappeared only to reappear above the jounin and punch him back down to the ground and did a roundhouse kick. Then she disappeared again only to reappear under him and kicked him back up once more, disappearing again _(A/N: Cookie for the first person to guess where she's going to be!)_ and reappeared above him one last time and gave him two punches, a round house kick and then to finish it she brought her fists together back down on his stomach and a kick to the kidney at the same time.

"_Fushichou Rendan!"_ _(A/N: My move I made up, again no copying unless I say you can BORROW the move!)_ Serena shouted out loud sending him pounding into the ground creating a nice little crater and billowing dust and earth debris.

Serena back flipped the rest of the way to the ground and watched for the dust to settle.

_"That can't be all that he's got, or at least that had to be a shadow clone,"_ She thought suspiciously.

"Show yourself, Kakashi-sensei! That can't be all that you've got!" Serena's voice rang out.

To prove those words correct, the dust finally settled and nothing but a cracked log laid in the center of the crater Serena made.

"I see," came Kakashi's voice making Serena's, Naruto's and Sasuke's heads whip to the left to see the speaker standing on the branch of a tree a few ugly bruises marring his skin and he was panting rather heavily.

"You live up to your reputation," Kakashi commented keeping his eyes trained on the kunoichi.

_"That last attack from Serena would have put me in a coma for a week if I hadn't used a Kawarimi no jutsu after she kicked me in the air!"_ he thought uneasily with a grimace.

"That Suiton: Suigadan jutsu you used…..wasn't just merely used as an attack wasn't it?" Kakashi pointed out slowly.

"I dunno, you tell me," Serena countered.

_"You __let__ me attack you first!_ You were planning from the very beginning on how you would lay a hand on me to weaken me. When I attacked you with the Katon: Karyu Endan you purposely dodged! I know you did because to do all of those high-level jutsus you just did you had to have perfect chakra control, meaning you could have formed a chakra barrier potent enough to protect yourself from my jutsu.

Then you used the Suiton: Suigadan jutsu, a water jutsu knowing that I'd either counter it or dodge it. Either way the water from the Suiton: Suigadan jutsu would make a puddle on the ground…not much but big enough for your liking and that's all you needed to form a distraction on me using the Sensatsu Suisho jutsu.

You knew that I would take long enough time to either dodge it or counter it again, more likely to counter it since that's what I did with the Futon: Renkudan against your Suiton: Suigadan.

So, while I was countering the ice jutsu, you raced at blinding speed too fast for the naked eye to see, past my mud wall and kicked me in the side. Then you finished up the trap with the move really to use to finish me off, that Fushichou Rendan," Kakashi explained.

To say Naruto and Sasuke were stunned would be an understatement.

"All of that was a trap so she could use her Fushichou Rendan on him!?" Naruto exclaimed.

"And Kakashi nearly fell for it," Sasuke added.

"Serena is genius!" Naruto cheered.

Then the folds on Serena's mask shifted into that familiar smirk.

"Actually he did fall for it," Serena corrected and brought a hand up and shook the items in her hand.

* * *

Ren: "Oooo that is such a good cliffy!

Naruto: "Aw, c'mon you can't put a cliffy in now! It was just getting to the best part!"

Sasuke: "I have to agree with the dobe! You're evil!"

Ren: "Well when you two are writers someday you will get to choose how you write your stories. It's an amazing feeling, just a stroke of a pen and you can make anything you want to happen."

Naruto: "REALLY! Alright! I know exactly what I'll write. In fact I think I'll do that right now." _(Gets out a sheet of paper and a pen and starts writing while saying it out loud)_ "There…shall…be….an…infinite…ramen….and….Naruto….Uzumaki….will…be…the….greatest….ninja…and…hokage!"

Sasuke: "Dobe! Why would write about a stupid thing like that?"

Naruto: "Oh yeah? Well what would you write, teme?"

Sasuke: "Me? Oh that's easy, hang on!" _(Gets a sheet of paper of his own and pen and writes for a few seconds before handing it to Naruto for him to read out loud)_ "Here read that out loud."

Naruto: _(Glances at the paper and burst out laughing)_ "G-Geeze Sasuke, you write like a girl!"

Ren: _(Cracks knuckles and towers over Naruto with a death glare)_ "And what's THAT supposed to mean!"

Naruto: "Oh, uh, nothing, nothing, Ren. Please don't hurt me!"!

Sasuke: "Just read the paper, dobe!" !

Naruto: "Alright, alright, don't get your knickers in a bunch! Ok lets see," _(Squints at the paper)_ "Itachi Uchiha shall die a very painful death by the hand of Sasuke Uchiha along with his fangirls….poor Sakura gotta be stuck with Itachi!...and Sasuke's father will come back to life and he will admit that Sasuke is better than him. Then Serena a.k.a. Ren the writer of this fic shall fall in love with Sasuke Uchiha and then they will get married and revive the Uchiha clan and live happily ever after-wait WHAT!?"0.0

Ren: _(Blushes very deeply and stares wide eyed at Naruto well more at the paper) _"WHAT THE HELL! SINCE WHEN DID I GET DRAGGED INTO THIS!!! I DON'T WANT TO GET MARRIED AND HAVE BABIES WITH SASUKE, HECK I DON'T EVEN WANT TO GET MARRIED AT ALL, WELL AT LEAST NOT YET!! I'M ONLY 18 FOR KAMI'S SAKE I STILL HAVE MY WHOLE LIFE AHEAD OF ME!!!!"0.0

Itachi: _(Appears out of no where)_ "And besides, she's not marrying Sasuke, she's marrying me!"

Ren, Naruto, and Sasuke: 0.0

Ren: "WHAT THE HELL!!!! WHERE DID YOU COME FROM AND I SAY NO!!! I'M NOT GETTING MARRIED TO YOU OR SASUKE!!!!"

Itachi: _(Shrugs)_ "No where important, and yes you WILL get married to me!"

Ren: "NO I WILL NOT!!!! I'M AN INDEPENDENT PERSON!!! YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO AND THREATEN ME AGAIN AND I WILL MAKE IT SO YOU TURN OUT TO BE HOMOSEXUAL WITH KISAME IN THE STORY!!!!"

Sakura: _(Sighs out of irritation)_ "Just leave folks before it gets any uglier. Remember to R&R though, it's the little, lilac, rectangular button down on the bottom that says Go!"

**Glossary**

**Dobe-**Dead last, loser (Insult)

**Teme**-Bastard (Insult)

**Genin (I know I should have explained this in the first chapter but I forgot it)**- Lowest rank of shinobi to Hokage.

**Jounin (I know I should have explained this in the second chapter but I forgot it)**-3rd highest rank of shinobi to Hokage.

**Kai**-Word spoken out loud to release a victim from a genjutsu or illusion.

**Kunai-**Shinobi weapon. Closed to dagger size, shaped like an arrowhead at the top then with a wrapped handle and loop at the bottom of the handle.

**Shuriken**- Shinobi weapon. About the size of a person's wrist, has four points shaped like a star with a hole in the middle.

**Kuso**- Shit! (Curse word)

**Fushichou**-Pheonix bird (Animal)


	6. Anyone Got Any Tylenol?

Ren: "Here's Chappie 5!"

Sakura: "Ren does not own Naruto, if she did she would be a multibillionaire."

* * *

**-Chapter 5: "Anyone got any Tylenol?"-**

_Jingle…Jingle…Jingle…_

A "WHAT!" sounded throughout the forest loud enough to shake the trees and send birds screeching and fluttering in a flurry of feathers to the air.

Even Kakashi fell out of the tree he was in and somewhere within the bushes there was a thump and a groan.

"How….how…that must be a genjutsu!" came the shriek of Sakura's voice as she rushed through the bushes to join Sasuke's and Naruto's little bystander like audience as she pointed at Serena much to the confusion to both Sasuke and Naruto as they blinked at her,

"Here, take a look at them if you don't believe me," Serena said off handedly and tossed the three a bell each.

Sakura caught one and gasped when it jingled and didn't disappear and then she looked at Kakashi's waist that the three bells had been snugly tied there and sure enough they were gone!

"They're, they're real! It's not a genjutsu! How's that possible?" Sakura rasped out wide eyed.

"Really how did you do that? No one and I mean no one, has been able to do that even if it wasn't the actual objective. You're the first one to do it," Kakashi asked.

"Simple really, that Fushichou Rendan, the attack that you thought was just an attack to I wanted to use to weaken you, wasn't what you thought. It was a cover up attack! See when I kicked you in the side I took that time to swipe the bells without you even noticing it and the Fushichou Rendan was just a cover up just to make you _think_ I was trying to weaken you when I had already taken the bells," Serena explained.

"Oh, and about that hidden objective you were muttering about earlier, we already know the answer to that one," She added as an afterthought.

"Oh? Then please, do tell me what may the answer be?" Kakashi questioned with a quirked eyebrow.

"Is that eye of yours that blind? We already showed you the answer! Teamwork. We worked together against you in order to get the bells but I _knew_ that with those three put together it wouldn't be enough to take the Hatake Kakashi down long enough to get the bells. They still have a lot more to learn before they can do that on even ground. So I helped them out.

Sakura was the one to create the fake genjutsu to distract you so Sasuke and Naruto could work together to get the bells and then I came in to give them a helping hand to get the bells.

You want us to first understand and use the value of teamwork. To work as one cohesive unit before you teach us anything. After all, how are we going to survive on a mission if we're too busy biting each others heads off to notice a kunai flinging our way? We need to be able to work together with cool heads under dangerous and life threatening situations otherwise we wouldn't be able to call ourselves a team and what would then be the point of a three-shinobi team?

There are some missions where you are forced to work with complete strangers on said missions and to have the ability to work with a complete stranger without knowing **single** thing about that person would be a great asset to complete missions when it calls for something like that," Serena explained.

_"Well if she explains thing that way, it's bound to make perfect sense,"_ was everyone's thought.

_"Ha, she hit it right on the doornail!"_ Kakashi thought ironically and then glanced at the clock to see one minute remaining on the timer.

"You…." Kakashi started in a deadly voice. Thunder clouds suddenly appearing and a gusty wind sweeping through the clearing.

"….Pass!" he finished cheerily the clouds disappearing and wind calm, his visible eye forming an upside down U to show he was smiling.

Even Serena couldn't help but fall over in a deadpan at the cheesy moment.

"You all pass! What Serena just explained was true but with a different variation than I was going for. I was going along the lines of valuing your comrades, after all _'Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades in battle are worse than trash,_'" Kakashi explained further.

Naruto started cheering and jumping around, Sasuke was smirking, Sakura was smiling and fiddling with her hair and Serena you couldn't really tell what her expression was because of the black mask covering a good portion of her face.

"So what kind of jutsu was that Fushichou Rendan anyway? I've never heard of it before," Naruto asked looking at Serena curiously.

"It's a family taijutsu combo," Serena simply answered.

Then a rumbling made its presence know and Sakura blushed holding her stomach as she smiled shyly looking at everyone that was giving her odd looks.

"Heh, gomenasai. I guess not eating breakfast is taking its toll and the fact that it's around lunch time, now," She said meekly.

Kakashi chuckled and then suggested, "Let's say we have lunch, then, shall we?"

Everyone agreed to that and Kakashi passed out the lunches. When he got to Serena, though, he held the bento in front of her face teasingly.

"You want this? First we've got to talk, why don't you follow me?" Kakashi taunted with a hidden smirk behind his mask.

A question mark appeared above Serena's head as she got a confused look underneath her mask.

"You know you don't have to use food to con me into talking in private with you, just to let you know," Serena pointed out with her hands on her hips, glowering at Kakashi.

"Just follow me," Kakashi said simply.

Serena sighed and followed Kakashi to wherever he wanted to go. When they came across a clearing a good ways away from the three genin, Kakashi finally stopped and turned to talk to her.

"Alright, I know this may sound strange but,-" Kakashi started to say but was interrupted by the kunoichi,

"-You want me to help you train Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto."

"Uh, yes, how'd you know?" Kakashi questioned with his eyebrow quirked, befuddled.

"Great minds think alike, Kakashi-sensei. Actually I was wanting to ask you something anyway, its part of a deal I made with Sasuke-san. See I offered to help train him leaving you to focus on Naruto and Sakura and in exchange he would help me find a place to stay, help me unpack and teach me Katon jutsus," Serena explained.

Kakashi scratched his head as he found nothing to say to that.

"Huh, well I have no problem with that but you've got to help out in teaching Naruto and Sakura, too, I don't want to have friction in between the team because you're devoting your whole time training Sasuke when the others have just as much of a chance to get stronger, too," Kakashi said.

Serena nodded and said, "Agreed, but what I'd like to know is, how do you plan on training them? I'd think it would be best if you started on their chakra control first before anything else and see what their affinities are. I already tested Sasuke's and he has fire and lightning."

"Hm, lightning, eh? I have a couple lightning jutsus we could teach him and then there's the Chidori," Kakashi said thoughtfully.

Serena's faced acquired a curious look as she looked at the jounin.

"Chidori? What's that?" She asked.

"It's a lightning jab that I created, you have to have a lot of chakra and speed to use it," Kakashi explained.

Serena looked interested at this.

"Can you teach me it? In exchange I'll also help train Naruto and Sakura as well as Sasuke, of course? I may be able to learn it, then again I'm still working on my lightning affinity, as well," Serena asked.

"You're _working_ on your lightning affinity? I didn't think people could develop their own affinities. Exactly how many affinities do you have? What are they?" Kakashi fired one question after another.

"Well I told Sasuke that I had only 3 affinities but I did that so he would get jealous or something since he only has two but really I have all 5. I just have work at it and learn the jutsus for those affinities," Serena responded.

"A-all 5? Even I don't know anybody that has that many affinities!" Kakashi choked as he stared wide eyed at the kunoichi.

"So do we have a deal or not?" Serena prodded trying to change the subject a little.

"W-what? Oh-yeah, sure!" Kakashi spluttered trying to regain his senses.

"Ok, so first things first let's start off with tree walking and we'll go from there is that alright with you?" Serena suggested.

Kakashi nodded. "I'm good," he said.

With that they returned just in time to see Naruto get sent flying into a tree with of Sakura's punches to the head. Both Serena and Kakashi sighed and sweatdropped.

"Looks like we got a lot of work ahead of us," Serena said heavily.

"Sshh, don't jinx it!" Kakashi hissed as he glared at the kunoichi.

Serena slapped her hand on her forehead and sighed again.

_"Great, I have a superstitious Sensei to add to the list,"_ Serena groaned in her head.

"Hey, you're back!" Naruto shouted once he caught sight of Serena and Kakashi, directing the other two's attention to them.

"Yeah and we've come up with an idea, one that will still fit the deal we made yesterday, Sasuke-san so that should make you happy-ish," Serena offhandedly and then looked at Kakashi.

Taking this as his cue to start speaking, he did so.

"Not only will I teach and train you but Serena-san here has also agreed to help train you as well since she's more experienced in areas of fighting than I am such as the art of the sword for example. _(A/N: I forgot the term for fighting with weapons I think it's called Kinjutsu but when I looked it up the info said Kinjutsu are forbidden techniques so I'm not sure since I didn't think fighting with swords and daggers were forbidden)_," He explained.

There were several reactions to this statement that happened all at once. Naruto started jumping up and down, cheering and shouting joyful words as if he had just been proclaimed the next Hokage, Sakura scowled at the thought of being taught by what she considered to be the enemy, and Sasuke just remained impassive as if someone just simply said he had a bug on his shirt and he couldn't care less.

"So first we will work on your chakra control. This will help you gain more chakra reserves and better control in jutsus, plus I need to know where you three stand in skills before I help Kakashi teach you anything else. If we are going to be a team we need to know each other's strengths and weaknesses and strengthen them," Serena explained with Kakashi nodding in agreement in the background.

"But we'll work on that tomorrow when your chakra reserves are restored. So for now you all are dismissed and are to meet on the bridge one mile from here at 7 a.m. tomorrow, understood?" Kakashi said.

The three nodded and started to leave.

"Hey, Sakura-chan, wanna go get a bowl of ramen with me?" Naruto asked the pinkette who was ogling dreamily at Sasuke.

"You baka! You just ate and now you're hungry again? In any case, no I will not," Sakura shrieked and bonked Naruto on the head.

Sasuke just sighed and left.

"Serena-san, do mind coming with me for a second? I'd like you to meet someone," Kakashi asked the raven haired kunoichi who was in the midst of retrieving her fallen kunai and shuriken.

Serena paused and blinked in a puzzled way at the copy-nin.

"Um, sure," She replied and stuffed the kunai and shuriken in their respective places.

"Good, if we hurry we still might be able to catch them before they leave, c'mon," Kakashi said and started walking in the direction Sasuke went but heading for a different location.

Serena frowned before following him.

A brunette jounin with a cigarette in his mouth stood before three students as he lectured them.

One student was the blonde fangirl, Yamanaka Ino, the second was rather let's say plump boy with swirls on his cheeks eating potato chips and the last had black eyes that looked like a lazy pineapple.

"Great, of all people you wanted me to meet, you had to go and pick the squad that contains a fangirl that just so happens to be the one I told off and hates my guts," Serena groaned as she stared at the foursome.

Kakashi rolled his eye and sighed.

"Quite your bellyaching and c'mon," He just said.

"Hey, Asuma, got a minute?" Kakashi called to the jounin as they neared the squad.

The Jounin known as Asuma and his students turned to see Kakashi and Serena who was trailing after her jounin instructor rather reluctantly.

"Kakashi, what are you doing here? And who is that with you?" Asuma questioned his fellow comrade.

"This is one of my students, Drystilia Serena and I want to talk with you for a second," Kakashi answered.

"YOU! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO TOLD ME OFF YESTERDAY!!!" Ino shouted when she spotted the glaring Serena.

"Hn," Serena grunted and continued to glare.

"Che, how troublesome," the lazy pineapple dude drawled.

Potato chip boy just continued stuffing his face with potato chips as he studied the kunoichi.

"So you're the one Iruka and the Hokage were talking about," said Asuma looking at Serena.

"Hai," Serena droned.

"Hm, anyways what did you want to talk to me about, Kakashi?" Asuma pressed on looking at the spiky haired cyclop.

"Well yesterday you were talking about giving Shikamaru and IQ test today right? Well, I was hoping you could test Serena-san, too?" Kakashi inquired.

Serena glared **hard** at Kakashi with a scowl.

"You know you could have just asked how smart I was instead of dragging me here and risk my hearing from the shrieking of a squealing pig," She growled at the Jounin.

"HEY!" Ino shouted indignantly.

"Hay, is for horses, pig!" Serena sneered at the blonde.

"Why you-" Ino started to rant when Kakashi decided to intervene before things got ugly.

"Alright, that's enough you two, and Serena, just go along with it," he said.

"Anyways, I suppose I could test her, too, but why do you want me to test her IQ?" Asuma inquired suspiciously.

"She showed some pretty interesting tactics during the bell test today which she aced I might add," Kakashi said smugly as he glanced at Serena who was still death glaring the jounin not liking this predicament one bit.

Asuma's eyes went wide as he ogled the kunoichi.

"S-so you weren't kidding about the student thing? You actually have a team now? Man, you must be some kunoichi! No one has passed Kakashi's bell test before and I'm not exaggerating," Asuma said to the girl.

Asuma's students couldn't help but stare at Serena when their jounin said this.

"I'm not called the Wandering Kunoichi just for kicks you know," Serena said indignantly as she downright glared at the jounin.

The cigarette fell out of Asuma's mouth making Kakashi smirk behind his mask.

"So, I'll leave Serena here with you and you can tell me the results later today after the meeting with the Sandaime," Kakashi said to his fellow jounin and with a POOF! He was gone.

Serena scowled at the spot Kakashi disappeared from and then looked at the lazy pineapple boy.

"I'm going to borrow your words before and say, 'How, troublesome!'" She said to him.

"Che," was all the response she got in return.

_Later on in a meeting with the Sandaime……_

"We are here to discuss on which teams have passed. When I call you name step forward, state your name, squad number, the names of your students and if they've passed or not," the Sandaime said before picking up a clipboard.

"We'll start with you Kakashi," Sandaime said and looked at the Scarecrow.

Groans and sighs were heard throughout the office as the copy-nin stepped forward.

"What's the use in asking him? We already know that his students have failed, he always fails them," One jounin called out.

Kakashi secretly smirked behind his mask before he spoke, "I am Hatake Kakashi, and Jounin instructor for Squad 7. My squad consists of Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Drystilia Serena. These four I proclaim have passed my test."

Gasps and awed whispers rang louder than the groans and sighs from before.

_"-They passed!?"_

_"-Drystilia Serena? Isn't that the Wandering Kunoichi?"_

_"-And Uchiha Sasuke is on Kakashi's squad, too!"_

"Silence, so you finally get to stop being lazy and actually teach your squad something, eh Kakashi?" Sandaime interrupted and looked at the jounin who was chuckling.

"Next is Kurenai," Sandaime pressed on.

A female jounin with brown eyes and blackish brownish hair, stepped forward and spoke, "I am Yuuri Kurenai and Jounin instructor to for squad 8. My squad consists of Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuga Hinata and Aburame Shino. These three I proclaim have passed."

Sandaime nodded and said, "Next, Asuma."

The addressed jounin stepped forward and spoke, "I am Sarutobi Asuma and Jounin instructor for squad 10. My squad consists of Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji. These three I proclaim have passed."

_(A/N: Sorry, but I can't remember what happened after that, it's been years since I've last seen the beginning episodes, so I'm just going to skip to after the meeting.)_

"So, how did it go?" Kakashi started as he and Asuma walked down the steps of the Hokage tower.

"Unbelievable. I tested Shikamaru first and wouldn't you believe it he's actually got something else beside laziness. The guy has an IQ over 200!" Asuma explained as if he still couldn't believe it himself.

"Hm, interesting, tell me more," Kakashi commented.

"The guy may be lazy but he thinks like a general directing his troops into battle and when I played Go and Shogi with him he was already planning out his moves thinking 20 moves ahead of the moves he or I did!

And then I tested Serena, she was the same, her IQ was over 200 as well. The tests were played out the same as Shikamaru's so if you ever have a complex problem that needed to solved they would be able to figure it out right off the bat and that's by themselves, imagine what could happen if you put them together in a room to plan battle tactics or something. If they ever were, I bet you they would have at least 20 good plans all just as flawless as the first one," Asuma said.

"Hm, interesting, very interesting indeed. Well thank you for your help Asuma, but if you'll excuse me for now I need to speak to a student of mine, good day," Kakashi said and with a POOF! He was gone.

So lets back track to see what Serena was doing after Asuma's IQ test and during the meeting with the Hokage. When Serena was released from Asuma's clutches and able to get away from the screaming banshee she decided to explore the new home she was going to be living in for the next who knows how many years.

So after a good few hours of walking around the market she decided to see what kind of weapons stores Konoha had.

_"So if I were a weapons store, where would I be?"_ Serena asked herself scanning her surroundings.

_(A/N: Ok I don't know what the name of the weapons store Tenten's dad owns so I am going to make up one of my own.)_

Then her eyes landed on a blue sign that said in peeling green letters, "Masked Kunai." _(A/N: Cheesy I know, but I couldn't think of anything on the top of my head)_

_"Bingo, now I can get some more kunai, I'm running a bit low, anyway," _Serena thought and made a b-line for the store.

A bell made a 'Ding!' sound when Serena stepped inside.

"Feel free to look around," a brunette haired man in his early 30's and hazel eyes said to her.

Serena nodded. "Will do," She responded.

The weapon shop wasn't exactly an outlet mall but it still had a good selection of weapons and other ninja necessities. Strolling to the back she examined the weapon section.

Serena whistled.

"You guys certainly know your weapons. Most of the weapon shops I've been in don't even compare to these!" She commented to the man.

The man looked pleased and shocked.

"Why thank you, young lady. I only carry and make the best you know," the man informed her.

"You make some of these weapons, too? What metal alloy do you use? I've heard that titanium is good but some people like to use different metals for different creations. Personally I like to use the strongest metals for when I make my own weapons, sometimes," Serena asked, walking up to the counter where the man stood behind looking at her in amusement.

"You make your own weapons?" the man countered with a question of his own.

Serena nodded.

"Yes, in fact, I'm carrying a few of the weapons I made right now. Here," Serena said and then she withdrew the katana at her side.

The katana had blue wrappings on the hilt and the blade itself was a deep midnight blue that was almost as long at the man's arm. On flat of the blade on both sides was black dragon engraved in the metal.

"You can look at it if you want but whatever you do, do not run your finger along the edge. The blade has a fatal quality to it," Serena warned the man.

Said man picked it up by the hilt and weighed the sword in his hand was surprised to find it so light you could mistake if for a feather if it wasn't made to impale you instead tickling or sneezing.

Then he brought the blade closer to his face and eyed the dragon embossed on it and looked at the blue blade.

"This blue, how did you get it to be this dark of a hue and what's the metal alloy? I can't identify it," the man asked.

"The blue is a dye from a certain plant that you can only find in dark, moist caves and little sunlight. The metal is a mix I made that took several months to make and it wasn't easy to find the parts either. I had to mix mythril and dragon scales. Mythril for its ability to withstand pressure from outside forces and dragon scales to make it light and add to the durability," Serena explained.

The man was stunned as he looked from Serena to the katana and back to Serena.

"You must have had a lot of experience of blacksmithing to make a sword like this," the man stated and handed the katana back to its owner.

"I learned a bit when I was younger during my travels," Serena said sheathed the katana.

"What's the name?" the man asked.

"The katana is Doragon, MY name is Drystilia Serena," Serena finally introduced herself with a bow.

The man certainly recognized the name for he had started coughing and spluttering. Then there was another "Ding" as three genin walked in.

"Hey Dad, we're back. What's wrong?" the kunoichi out of the three said to the man.

Said man stopped coughing and spluttering and looked at his daughter.

"Ah, Tenten how was training? And nothing is wrong I just met an interesting person that's all," The man said.

Tenten had brunette hair pulled back into two buns with brown eyes and looked a year older than Serena. Serna wasn't paying attention for she was sweat dropping, as she gave an odd look at one of the other genin who had a black bowl cut hair, black round eyes, had the bushiest eyebrows she had ever seen in her life and wore a green jumpsuit and orange leg and arm warmers that screamed, "FREAK THAT WANTS TO DIE YOUNG!!!"

The genin kept on spouting the word 'Youthful' as he darted from the other genins' side and ogled the weights in the weight section.

_"Is everyone unique like this in Konoha or am I the only one seeing this?"_ Serena wondered as she moved her head to watch the genin dart everywhere around the shop.

"Oh, and who might you be?" Tenten asked just now noticing Serena directing the kunoichi's attention onto the brunette.

"Um, I thought it was customary to introduce yourself first before asking for someone else's name or is it different for you guys in this village?" Serena asked slowly.

Tenten blushed and chuckled at her rude behavior.

"Oh, right, sorry where are my manners? I'm Tenten," She said and bowed.

"Drystilia Serena," Serena said returning the bow.

"So you weren't lying?" the man gasped at the kunoichi.

Clueless, Tenten looked at her father with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Why would I lie? I have no reason to," Serena inquired.

"I don't get it Dad, is there something you know about this kunoichi that I don't?" Tenten asked her father.

Serena looked amused while the man gave his daughter a dubious look.

_"So she doesn't realize who I am, amusing. Well this'll be a shocker for her,"_ Serena mused.

"How could you not recognize Serena-san's name? I mean she's the only thing you ever talk about since she's your idol! I mean she's _thee_ Drystilia Serena, the Wandering Kunoichi!" the man deadpanned.

Tenten shrieked and then snapped her head in Serena's direction who gave her a meek wave.

_"So I'm this girl's idol, eh?"_

_"I can't believe I didn't recognize the Wandering Kunoichi's name! Lovely, first impression with your idol, Tenten!"_ Tenten mentally scolded herself.

"Gomenasai, Serena-san for not recognizing who you are," Tenten apologized with a bow.

Serena waved her hands in front her and shook her head.

"No, no, it's alright. This is only second day in this village, after all, so I don't expect word to get around that the Wandering Kunoichi is living in the Village Hidden in the Leaves to everyone that quickly. Which is, actually a good thing because I'm not trying to avoid any fanboys yet, which is a pain in the neck," Serena said jokingly.

Tenten and her father laughed at Serena's words.

"So who are your teammates?" Serena asked as she looked at the last genin who was still standing at the doorway watching the other genin with annoyance.

The boy had long brunette hair tied at his lower back in a loose ponytail with opaque pupiless eyes.

_"Hm, a Hyuga? At least the descriptions from the other villages fit him. I've never seen one before so I can't be sure,"_ Serena mused.

"Oh, hang on, let me call them over. Lee, Neji come over here for a second I'd like you to meet someone," Tenten called to the two genin.

"Hello, Tenten it is youthful that I get to meet one of your friends!" the freaky green jumpsuit boy exclaimed after he bounded over to his teammate.

The unconfirmed Hyuga made a lot less noise as he swiftly walked over to the group.

"What is it, Tenten?" the boy asked but kept his eyes trained on Serena.

"I'd like you to meet my idol, Drystilia Serena. Serena-san the one in the green jumpsuit is Rock Lee and the one with the wrappings on his left arm and leg is Hyuga Neji," Tenten introduced.

"Konichiwa, _(A/N: Forgive me, but I think that's how you spell the Japanese word for hello. I've trying to find English translating to Japanese and back since my old one is no longer working but I've hadn't had any luck so far, if any of you have one please put the url to the website and I'll check it out) _to you both," Serena greeted with a bow.

"Konichiwa," Lee and Neji responded but only Lee returned the bow.

"So this is what a Hyuga looks like, I've heard a lot about your clan but I've never actually seen one," Serena said to Neji.

"Hn," Neji grunted.

Tenten sweatdropped at her comrade's reaction.

"Uh, don't mind Neji Serena-san, he's always like this to other people including me and Lee," Tenten defended Neji hoping Serena didn't get offended.

Serena shook her head.

"It's alright, he's not the first person I've met to act like this and probably won't be the last. Why I even have a teammate that acts the same way so I know how to put up with it," She simply said.

"Oh," was all Tenten uttered.

Then Lee decided to jump in on the conversation.

"Forgive me, Serena-san but I cannot help but ask if you are new here for I have not seen you before?" Lee asked the kunoichi.

"Yes, actually I am, I arrived just yesterday in fact," Serena answered.

"Oh, well then if you had just arrived yesterday then how come you are a genin today? Don't you have to be in the academy?" Lee inquired puzzled.

_"Hm, that is a good question," _Neji thought as he looked at the raven haired kunoichi expectantly.

Serena chuckled and Tenten roll her eyes.

"Baka, Lee! Do you not realize who this is? The Wandering Kunoichi knows every kind of jutsu there is so she would already know the Henge no jutsu and Kawarimi no jutsu and she would only need to know the handsigns for the Bunshin no jutsu for Konoha to perform it! There would be no need to send her to the academy to learn what she already knows!" Tenten hissed at her comrade.

Neji and Lee's eyes went wide as they realized that were standing in the presence of the Wandering Kunoichi.

"Oh my, gomenasai Serena-san for I didn't realize that you are the Wandering Kunoichi," Lee apologized.

"No need to apologize it is quite alright," Serena simply said.

Neji on the other hand looked like he was in denial at believing that standing before him was a kunoichi no more than the age of thirteen claiming that she was the Wandering Kunoichi.

"Something wrong, Neji-san?" Serena inquired catching the look.

"I don't believe you. You can't be the Wandering Kunoichi," Neji said bluntly crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes at Serena.

Serena frowned behind her mask.

"Oh, and why is that?" She asked confused.

"Because you're only a 13 year old girl! Rumor has it that it was a full grown woman that be known as the Wandering Kunoichi from her surviving victims, so you must be lying!" Neji replied coldly.

"And what, pray tell, would motivate me to lie to you? I barely know anything of you or your clan and you have done nothing to spite me that would make me want to do so," Serena defended herself calmly.

"I don't know, you tell me," Neji simply said.

Serena sighed.

_"Obviously words alone aren't going to convince him to believe what I say so what will?"_ Serena pondered.

"Ok, how can I prove to you that I am what I say I am and am not some person under a disguise and or am claiming false words?" Serena shot at the Hyuga.

Neji thought for a bit and then finally came to a conclusion.

"Spar with me and we shall see. If you are what you say you are then you should have no problem fighting me on even grounds," He demanded.

"Lead the way," was all Serena said with a shrug.

"Yosh! Gai-sensei will want to see this youthful spar, I should go get him so he can watch this youthful bout," Lee exclaimed and then ran off telling them he'll meet them with Gai-sensei at their training grounds.

Serena sweatdropped as she watched the freaky boy run off.

"No offence, but what a freak!" Serena deadpanned.

Tenten laughed and Neji smirked.

"Don't worry, you get used to him as time passes," Tenten explained.

"Can I watch, too?" Tenten's Dad asked looking hopeful.

"Don't you have a shop to watch over?" Tenten asked her father with an odd look on her face.

Tenten's Dad sighed and nodded.

"C'mon I want to get this started," Neji said to the kunoichi and then turned and walked out of the weapons shop with Serena and Tenten trailing behind.

_At Team Gai's training grounds…._

Serena had just set one foot in Team Gai's training grounds when a taller clone of Rock Lee jumped out in front of Serena scaring the living daylights out of the poor kunoichi giving her a thumbs up and an eye blinding smile.

"Hi there," the man said.

Serena shrieked at his sudden appearance and nearly toppled over if it wasn't for Neji who caught her and set her back on her feet.

"Uh forgive my language but-WHO THE HELL ARE YOU AND WHY DO YOU LOOK LIKE A TALLER VERSION OF ROCK LEE!!??" Serena shouted.

_"I am officially freaked out now. Not only are their green spandex weirdos running around everywhere but they keep popping up everywhere when you least expect it! I hope they don't stalk people here or its bye-bye to Konoha and hello sanity!"_ Serena thought reluctantly.

"Sorry about that! I am Gai-sensei, jounin instructor of Lee, Neji, and Tenten here," the jounin now known as Gai said.

"Fascinating," Serena tried to keep the sarcasm out of her voice in her response.

"So I hear you challenged Neji to a spar. I warn you though it is not going to be easy, he's one of the best shinobi around though only second to Lee here," Gai said in a cool pose.

"Oh Gai-sensei! Such honorable words cannot express my gratitude to your praise," Lee exclaimed as he looked at the jounin with his eyes burning.

"It's only the truth Lee, because you are the best and I am proud to have you as my student," Gai oozed out as he gave Lee an eye blinding smile and thumbs up with a sunset in the background.

"Oh, Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

Serena's left eye was twitching and her mind was telling her that this was wrong and that she should turn around a make a run for it before she would die from the sight she was watching.

_"I am now officially scarred for life! Can anyone say GAY FEST!!?? (A/N: Support homosexuality here, people, so don't be offended please. Trust me if you saw this too, you would be thinking the same thing as well) This is making me wish I didn't agree to this spar,"_ Serena shrieked in her head.

"Is there no where else that we can spar at that doesn't involve um, those two?" Serena almost pleaded the Hyuga.

Said Hyuga just rolled his eyes and said, "Come on, you're not dead yet so you should survive for a couple more minutes."

"Haha, tell me, where did you learn how to comfort people like this? In the academy or did you learn that on your own because you're **such **a _natural_ at it!?" Serena drawled her voice dripping with so much sarcasm Tenten fell to the floor laughing her head off.

Neji just glared and Gai and Lee roared with laughter.

"Let's just get this over with," Neji just said coldly and led the group to a clearing.

"Hold up before we begin," Serena said to Neji and started taking the twin katanas from her back.

"What are you doing?" Neji questioned in a confused manner as he watched Serena place her katanas on a log near their spectators.

"You said you wanted an even fight, didn't you? Well, it wouldn't be fair if I used my katanas and sais on you while you only have kunai and shuriken to defend with. Plus, my katanas and sais have a fatal quality to it that I do not wish to inflict upon a fellow comrade," Serena explained as she took off her Doragon Katana and as an after thought took her horn off as well and placed them on the log next to her twin katanas.

"Yosh, the Wandering Kunoichi does not only posses youthful skill, but she also holds such youthful honor," Lee praised as he grinned at Serena.

Serena sweatdropped and stared at the mini Gai.

"Um, arigatou?" She said slowly and unsurely.

Then she sat down on the log and unfastened the sai holsters and placed them on the log.

"Alrighty, I'm good now and as far as restraint goes you can go all out if you want, I've been wanting to test my strength against an Hyuga anyway," Serena said to Neji as she stood facing him.

"Hn, don't say I didn't warn you," was all Neji said.

* * *

Ren: "And that's the end of Chappie 5. Coming up next Neji and Serena battle it out in a spar! Wohoo!"

Naruto: "A soar!? How come I don't get to watch?"

Sasuke: "Or me?"

Kakashi: "Or me?"

Sakura: "Or me?"

Ren: "Ok I get it! Sheesh! And you don't get to watch because I say so! And what the writer says goes got it?" _(Death glares the four)_

Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi and Sakura: _(Cower in a group from Ren's death glare and squeak)_ "Yes ma'am!"

Ren: "Good, now Sasuke wrap up the chapter please, if you will."

Sasuke: "For the love of all that is sane-if you want me to live please Read and Review, please!!!"

**Glossary**

**Gomenasai**-I'm sorry please forgive me.

**Katon**-Fire

**Chidori**-Jutsu of 1000 birds

**Baka**-Idiot, moron.

**Doragon**-Dragon (obviously, just take out the 'o' between the 'd' and 'r' and you have your answer)

**Konichiwa**-Hello

**Arigatou**-Thank you


	7. Secrets Don't Make Friends!

Ren: _(Waltzes in)_ "Hello peoples, I'm back and here's Chappie 6!"

Sasuke: "Ren does not own Naruto if she did she would let us watch the spar with Serena and Neji."

Ren: "Oh, put a sock in it! Be thankful you are at least in the chapter!"

Sasuke: "Che, whatever."

Ren: "SHUT UP!"

* * *

**-Chapter 6: "Secrets Don't Make Friends!"-**

Neji and Serena stood facing each other in a clearing at Team Gai's training grounds with the rest of Team Gai standing off to the sidelines wondering when they were finally going to make a move.

Neji was in his normal Hyuga style taijutsu stance. One leg set forward and the other bent to support his weight with his right arm bent back to where his palm that was open and facing the ground, was parallel to his right side and his left arm was extended forward in front of his torso with his palm facing Serena.

Serena on the other hand took a more basic taijutsu stance that could be used for both defense and offense at the same time. Her left leg was bent towards Neji and her right leg was pulled back a bit more, bent at the knee facing the trees. Her torso was twisted so her upper half of the body could face Neji. One fist, specifically, her left was brought up to just above her left shoulder to protect her exposed back while her right forearm was brought up parallel to her mouth with her fist just barely skimming past her nose. That way she could block whatever attack Neji threw her way with her left hand and her right would be free to throw a counter punch back at the Hyuga.

The two just stood there facing each other, neither making a move to oppose each other as a gentle breeze blew through the clearing, stirring up dust, fallen leaves and loose blades of grass.

"Before we begin," Serena started before continuing, "Is it true that the Hyugas have a kekkei genkai named the Byakugan?"

Neji raised an eyebrow before answering, "Hai, it is true."

Serena's mask shifted giving the impression that she was smirking.

"Then feel free to use it against me anytime you wish and don't worry about me getting hurt or gravely injured. I have something that will aid me in this spar against you if you do use the Byakugan against me," Serena said.

"I can assure you, kunoichi, that this spar will most surely not come to that for fate has it that you will lose to me in this spar," Neji assured her.

"Fate is a fickle thing, Hyuga-san. You might believe something will happen with utmost certainty when it turns out to be different," Serena countered.

Neji scowled and his eyes flashed in anger. Then he decided to be the first to put this spar into action by taking out a pair of shuriken from his shuriken holster and flinging them at the awaiting kunoichi.

She didn't even flinch when the deadly quadruple bladed stars pierced her flesh but the immediate affect afterwards explained why.

"POOF!"

"THUD!"

A wooden log covered in moss with Neji's shuriken sticking out of its bark fell to the ground where Serena once stood but recently disappeared to some unknown, nearby location. Neji held his breath and his eyes widened just the slightest bit when he saw the result.

_"A kawarimi? I didn't even see a handsign so when did she cast the jutsu and where is she now?"_ He thought looking around calmly but suspiciously all the same.

_"Up? No-Left? No! Right-No, again! So that must mean-down!"_ Neji looked at the ground as he came to this conclusion.

He silently cursed himself because just as he made to look down a black, fingerless gloved hand burst from the ground in between his feet and punched him square in the face sending him flying back towards the trees and land flat on his back in the dirt in a crucifix position.

Tenten and Lee gasped in shock.

_"No one has been able to hit Neji and I mean no one, not even Lee could and he's just as good in taijutsu as Neji is!"_ Tenten thought.

"So are we going to get serious now? Or am I going to have to smack you around a couple more times for you to get the message that I'm not fooling around?" Serena taunted as she glared down at the Hyuga who currently was sitting up, glaring back at her and wiping the trickle of blood from his busted lip.

"Hn," Neji grunted and hauled himself to his feet.

_"Alright if it's the Byakugan she wants to face, then it's the Byakugan she'll get,"_ Neji thought.

Then he closed his eyes and started to do some handsigns.

_"Hn, what's he up to?"_ thought Serena suspiciously while falling into the taijutsu stance she started out with.

Tenten and Lee on the other hand gasped out loud as they immediately recognized the handsigns Neji was performing.

"Is he really going to use the Byakugan on, Serena-san?" Lee asked in a hushed voice.

"Yosh! The Wandering Kunoichi is truly amazing and courageous to go up against the youthful power of Neji's Byakugan!" Gai proclaimed with his eye blinding smile and thumbs up.

Neji, finished with his handsigns, opened his eyes and the veins on the side of his head bulged and the sharpness of his pupiless eyes enhanced.

"Byakugan!" he called out to let Serena know that he had finally activated his bloodline limit.

Serena studied Neji for a moment through narrowed eyes as he got in the Hyuga taijutsu stance.

_"Hm, so that's the Byakugan. No offense but he kinda looks like he has a bad case of allergies. Hm, what's that?"_ Serena silently asked as she sensed a spike in Neji's chakra reserves that made her draw her eyes to Neji's hands and arms.

_"It….it feels like he's extending his chakra outward through his tenketsu points and making it cover his hands and arms like an external but invisible outer shell. Hm, interesting…..I better keep on my toes, if he can have enough chakra control to mold his chakra like that who knows what he'll do with it. Better lower my weights just in case, something tells me speed and agility are going to be my two best friends in this spar. I think half should do it, if not I'll use a Kawarimi or create some kind of distraction to lower the weights again."_ Serena planned.

Then slowly, Serena brought her left hand over to the black wrappings on her right forearm and placed her index and middle finger just above her wrist and used her chakra to make the weight seal appear.

"What are those?" Neji inquired curiously when he saw the seal on Serena's wrist with the number 150 in the middle.

"It's a weight seal," Serena simply answered and took away half of the chakra that was in the weight seal making the number change to 75.

"A weight seal?" Neji echoed through question form as he frowned.

_(A/N: Here you go folks, the 411 on what a weight seal is.)_

"Yosh! A weight seal is a weight formed by a person's chakra and a seal and a certain amount of chakra depending on the amount of weight the user wants to withstand and it can be placed on anything, a person, armor, personal belonging," Lee explained out loud to Neji.

Serena looked at Lee.

"You must be a weight user yourself to know that for only people who wish to use such things would know," She said to the mini Gai clone.

Lee nodded and beamed at the prospect of coming across another weight user like himself not counting Gai-sensei.

"How much do you carry? I do 600 lbs but then again I need to up mine again. My body is adapting to this weight quicker than I thought," Serena question the genin curiously and simultaneously reduced the weight on her left wrist bringing the weight down to 75 lbs from 150 lbs.

"I just upped my weights to 500 lbs myself, you are bearing 100 lbs more than I," Lee answered.

Serena looked impressed at that answer as she finished lowering the weights on her calves so they matched the weights on her arms. Then she got back into her earlier stance and trained her eyes on the Hyuga silently daring him to make the first move.

Neji smirked at the silent message and accepted it by charging at a speed that alerted Serena instantly.

When he got within striking distance he lashed out with his right palm aiming for Serena's torso making Serena jerk to the side to avoid the jab. Then Neji struck out again with his left making Serena do a quick back flip to get out of range from Neji's blow. Unfortunately, Neji isn't the type to be deterred that easily and dashed after her.

_"He's faster than before! Is it his kekkei genkai that somehow boosted his speed or was he holding back for some reason?"_ Serena wondered as she dodged each jab and blow Neji threw her way.

_"I am so glad I took off half of my weights or I wouldn't be able to keep up with him right now. Got to keep dodging until I find an opening-don't even try to parry the blows,"_ Serena thought and then caught Neji off guard by flipping over him and landed behind his back.

_"There! He's defenseless!"_

Serena took the opening and immediately tried to kick him with her heel in the back. But a Hyuga has 360 degree vision so Neji would be able to see it coming and block it and he did by whipping around and catching Serena's foot in his left hand with a smirk.

"You'll have to do better than that!" Neji taunted and jabbed his right hand into Serena's abdomen making her cough but then a second later she exploded into tiny droplets of water.

Even Gai gasped from the sidelines.

"Amazing! She must have tons of control over her water affinity to be able to perform a Mizu Bunshin without needing a body of water nearby," Gai said in awe.

Then Neji whirled around as he detected a kunai flying towards him but something else was attached to the kunai that made Neji quickly reject the idea of catching the kunai out of the air and jump out of the way.

"Thump!"

"BOOM!"

The kunai barely sank its blade into the ground where Neji previously stood when the explosive note attached to it went off filling the clearing with smoke and debris.

_"So the Byakugan must allow him to be able to see from behind as well. Hm, I wonder…_" Serena mused from her hiding spot in the branches of a tree.

Then all of a sudden two kunai with a explosive note each were thrown at Neji on BOTH SIDES. You know how one kunai would be thrown on his left side and at the same time another one on his right.

_"How can she be that fast to be able to throw a kunai at me at the same time?"_ Neji silently questioned and then jumped out of the way.

"Thud!"

"BOOM!"

_"Only one of them was real, the other was fake! So she's testing me-no, not testing me! Testing my Byakugan! She's trying to figure out my Byakugan!"_ Neji realized.

_"I was right! His Byakugan allows him to see everything around him without having to turn his head to see it. Now if only I can figure out what he's trying to do with his hands. I can sense the chakra from his hands flowing at me whenever he throws a jab at me, it's as if he's willing-no pushing that chakra at my body and he seems to know exactly where to strike every time! How does he know? There must be more to that Byakugan than meets the eye,"_ Serena mused.

"Are you going to come out and fight me or are you going to continue hiding up there trying to work out the secrets of my Byakugan?" Neji called up to her as he looked dead on at the spot in the tree Serena was hiding in. Apparently he had found her.

_"Might as well confront him, no use staying in a spot where he KNOWS where I am at."_

So she dropped out of the tree and walked into the clearing until she was in a comfortable distance away from the Hyuga with a wary glance at him.

"What are you trying to do with your hands and how do you know where to strike every time?" She interrogated the pearl eyed boy.

Neji smirked.

"So you are trying to figure out my Byakugan! Tell me, what have you figured out so far?" Hw inquired intrigued.

"I know that you can see in all directions, I know that you somehow seem to know where to attack me all of the time and you are aiming to do something with that chakra molded around your hands but I haven't figured out what yet," Serena answered.

"You're a sharp one aren't you?" Neji stated more than questioned.

"So I've been told," Serena drawled.

"Well to answer your questions, my Byakugan allows me to see the chakra coils or channels within your body so that's how I know where to strike and the chakra I'm molding in my hands I'm using to attack those chakra channels in your body," Neji answered to help the kunoichi understand.

Serena was surprised at not only what she was just told but also because Neji didn't hesitate to tell her the secrets of his biggest weapon as if he was talking about nothing more than the weather.

"Ok, I know I asked, but, why would you give away the biggest secret to an advantage over me? Shouldn't you be trying to maintain and seize every advantage you can get to defeat me?" Serena asked skeptically.

"I told you SOME secrets about my Byakugan not all of them. I just told you what every other leaf shinobi knows about the Byakugan and since you are also a leaf shinobi you also should be able to posses this knowledge," Neji simply answered.

"That's just his way of saying he respects you as a formidable opponent, Serena-san!" Tenten called to the kunoichi.

Neji confirmed Tenten's words with a simple dip of the head in a positive motion and smirked. Serena was shocked at this revelation.

"But why? I mean I haven't done anything to gain respect from you so far. I've only gotten a hit on you once and thrown a couple of kunai at you nothing more. So how could I have gained your respect as a formidable opponent?" Serena said dubiously.

"By your actions. I always took the meaning 'Actions speak louder than words' to heart and what you've done so far just reinforces those words. Many opponents will only talk and claim about defeating me or laying a punch on me without considering the power I posses. You on the other hand, not only acknowledged my Byakugan but halfway figured out is power all on your own not once talking smack about how will defeat me and you even got a blow on me and that was when I didn't have my Byakugan on. I might add that, that is also a feat on its own for no one has yet to lay a punch me before," Neji explained.

"And you also got Neji to speak the most he's done since we've been a team," Tenten added with an amused smirk.

Serena looked amused as she shook her head, chuckling.

"Well, since I have gained _your_ respect, Neji, I should tell you that you also have gained mine. To prove those words I will show you two things that no one has ever seen ever before. Ever," Serena informed Neji who looked shocked.

"Two things no one has seen ever before?" Neji echoed dazed.

Serena didn't use words as an answer, instead she reached with both of her hands up to the knot that bound the mask to the lower half of her face and unbound the knot. Pulling it away from her face, she looked at Neji with a smirk evident on her full, pouty lips with a few abnormally sharp canines peeking from the upper lip.

"Hyuga Neji, you are now looking upon the real face of the Wandering Kunoichi which no one and I mean NO ONE has yet to have the privilege to do so. You are the first one, well really Team Gai is the first ones to see my face since they are here as well," Serena informed the gaping Neji.

"Neji, you rock!" Tenten cheered happily.

Then the mask was rebound to its rightful place and then Serena closed her eyes and started doing some handsigns of her own, none of which Team Gai could even begin to recognize.

Then Serena's eyes began to slowly open and what Team Gai saw, stunned them to the deepest core. Apparently, Neji wasn't the only one in this fight to possess a kekkei genkai in this little spar they are holding. Drystilia Serena had one, too! Before when Team Gai saw Serena's eyes they would swear to you on their life that her eye color was as blue as the clear night sky where all you could see was an ocean of twinkling stars and the sliver of a shimmering moon. Now they can't say the same thing because her eyes are completely different!

Gone was the midnight blue retina, black pupils and the whites of her eye. Instead, the whole eyeball had bled completely black as if someone had gone crazy with a black sharpie and colored everything black. It also seemed that she had gone and somehow mutated her pupil for it looked like there was not one but TWO pupils. One was your regular human-ish sized pupil. I say human-ISH because instead of the pupil being black it was crimson red like someone kept poking her pupil 50,000 times non stop. Then underneath the crimson pupil was ANOTHER pupil only it was a cat like slit and it was WHITE as white as the white you see on paper or snow or Neji's Byakugan. Then get this it seemed as if the crimson pupil had somehow cloned itself because four _more_ of the little red dots encircled the red pupil and white slit, one on each side and one above and below the slit.

"Hyuga Neji, meet MY Kekkei Genkai, the Ikichimatesun," Serena stated as she stared unblinkingly at the dumbstruck Hyuga.

Team Gai downright, shamelessly stared at Serena in shock and surprise.

_(A/N: Ok quick pause in the story real quick because I need to explain the meaning of the Ikichimatesun so you guys aren't getting a migraine trying to figure out what the effing hell that one 'I' word means and how to pronounce this 'I' word. Basically when it's broken down Ikichi pronounced I-key-she; means-Blood and girls don't go 'eww' it's your fault you chose to read this story. Then Matesu, pronounced Muh-tess-sue means-Mate as in 'How ya doin' mate?' the 'N' I just added onto the end to have a run off with the Sharingan and the Byakugan. As for the abilities of the Ikichimatesun it'll be explained in the story later on I can't say how late cause that would just ruin the suspense and the history of the Ikichimatesun will come WAY later maybe in the sequel which I'm still thinking about I may have people vote on that later on)_

"You have a kekkei genkai?" Neji questioned.

Serena nodded.

"On my missions, my victims will only see me as the Wandering Kunoichi never Drystilia Serena and Drystilia Serena is the one who has the Kekkei Genkai. So no one ever sees my Ikichimatesun and no one ever knows of the existence of Drystilia Serena. But, because of personal reasons I will know go into detail of, I feel that the world should know of this Serena and what her Ikichimatesun can do and then maybe, hopefully I can finally have a friend and know the treasures of friendship and kindness instead of being all alone for too many years," Serena explained in a soft tone with a forlorn look on her face as she stared at the ground.

She didn't see the pity flash across Tenten or Lee's face nor the awe and wonder on Neji's.

"So, are you ready to finish this spar or what?" Serena taunted the Hyuga as she got in her taijutsu stance and stared at the boy her face now blank.

"Hn, bring it on," Neji fired back and fell into his taijutsu stance.

Through Serena's eyes, she saw the outline of Neji and his tenketsu points and chakra channels bend into place as Neji moved and the chakra, now visible to Serena's eyes, flare out around his hands.

_"Hm, I wonder,"_ Serena pondered and then mirrored Neji's taijutsu stance making him do a double take.

"You think you can master the abilities of the Byakugan with your Ikichimatesun?" Neji sneered to cover up his hesitation.

Serena smirked behind her mask.

"Well we'll never know until we try, now will we?" the kunoichi shot back confidently.

Neji didn't answer with words, instead, he charged at Serena but for Serena it looked like someone had taken the remote that controlled time started messing with the buttons because she saw Neji move in a slow motion pace when in reality he was moving at a very high speed. Also, before when Neji attacked Serena's chakra network she would dodge the blow just barely, but now, she took the bull by the horns-so to speak. She used her left hand to block Neji's jab encasing her hand in chakra and pushing it against Neji's resulting in a ricocheting SMACK-BOOM! Sound to echo across the clearing.

The folds on Serena's mask shifted to show Neji that she was smirking at his shocked expression.

"I've figured out what I need to know in order to survive _your_ kekkei genkai, Neji, but have you figured out **mine**?" She taunted him.

Neji scowled.

"I will in time," He answered swinging his left hand at the Drystilia.

"SMACK-BOOM!"

Serena's hand halted Neji's advance before it could get even close to her body. Then Serena countered Neji's blows by attempting to kick his feet out from under him making him jump over her head to avoid the advancing foot.

_"She's unguarded!"_ Neji thought and moved his left hand at a blinding speed directly towards Serena's exposed backside.

But, unfortunately, it seems that Serena, too, has eyes in the back of her head for as soon as Neji tried to jab at Serena's spine, she had turned around on the spot and used her right palm to halt Neji's left. Each combatant's chakra pushing against each other making a resounding SMACK-BOOM!

Neji looked suspicious as he stared at Serena dead on into her crimson red, pearl white, and onyx black eyes.

"Yes, Neji-san, my kekkei genkai also allows me to have 360 degree vision just like your Byakugan does," Serena answered to Neji's questioning and suspicious look.

Neji could only frown at this and Serena took this opportunity to suddenly go on the offensive by molding her chakra to her left hand and lash out at Neji's unprotected kidney.

If it weren't for Neji's ability to see everything with his Byakugan and quick reflexes he would never have been able to prevent the would be devastating blow.

SMACK-BOOM!

Chakra clashed with chakra.

Then Serena struck out with her right hand with even more speed than Neji knew she had before.

_"She couldn't have reduced her seal weights again-she wouldn't have the time so that must mean-"_ Neji thought as he evaded the blow.

"Your Ikichimatesun must also enhance your speed and agility for you to move that quickly," Neji accused to the kunoichi.

Serena nodded.

"You are also a sharp one, aren't you? Yes, as a matter of fact; the Ikichimatesun not only enhances my speed and agility but it also doubles my speed, agility, chakra control, chakra reserves, reflexes, strength, stamina, and sense by ten fold. So everything you do I will be able to do with 10 times more efficiency," Serena explained.

Neji couldn't help but gulp nervously.

_"So in other words, I need to keep on my toes at all times and whenever I find a weak spot in her defenses I should take it to give me whatever advantage I can get to win this battle. From the looks of it, though, I may just find myself eating dirt for dinner at the end of this spar," _Neji mused.

Then all of a sudden he felt a searing pain in his stomach and he was sent back coughing up blood and saliva cradling his stomach.

_"The Ikichimatesun also must let her see my chakra network because she would never have known to hit me there like that," _Neji realized.

"Pay attention Neji-san, you know very well of the consequences if you don't," Serena scolded him.

It was then Neji realized Serena had been circling him at mind racking speeds, stirring up a ring of dust as tall as Neji himself and heck he could barely keep up with Serena's newly enhanced speed using his eyes alone.

_"I think it's time to throw in the towel before I end up in a really embarrassing defeat,"_ Neji thought glumly.

"What's with the forlorn look, Neji-san? You look like someone just told you that you could no longer be a shinobi or something," Serena inquired.

Then her eyes widened as she was forced to witness something she was most defiantly not expecting to see and couldn't help but echo the gasps emitted from Tenten, Lee and even Gai-sense's forms.

Neji had dropped his guards and raised his hand high in the air. This action was meant for shinobi in spars and or exam matches who wish to end the said spar or match by surrendering.

_**Hyuga Neji, the top genin of his year was actually admitting defeat! To a kunoichi no less!**__ (A/M: No offense to the gals out there I don't mean anything by it, heck I'm a female myself. I'm just using these words to have a very big impact)_

_"I yield!_ I know when I should stop, plus that last blow would have rendered me unconscious and be stuck in the hospital for the next three days if I went any further against this injury. So this proves that you truly ARE the Wandering Kunoichi, Drystilia Serena," Neji said humbly as he bowed at the waist to Serena who had stopped circling him and was downright staring at him in surprise.

To prove his words further, he completely turned off his Byakugan and sat down on the ground to put less strain on his injured stomach and wiped the trickle of blood from the corners of his mouth.

"Arigatou, Neji-san. To be honest, I didn't think it would be that easy to convince you," Serena admitted with a returned bow at the waist.

Then Serena closed her eyes and disconnected the chakra molded in her eyes. Grounding her teeth, she brought her hands up to her temples in an attempt to massage away the pounding migraine she just received from turning off her Ikichimatesun making her eye color revert back to her normal midnight blue.

Tenten, Lee and Gai-sensei's cheering weren't exactly helping things in the matter either, unfortunately for poor Serena.

Neji must have caught onto Serena's discomfort because a moment later his voice rang out making her open her eyes and wince at the invading sunlight in her now very sensitive eyes.

"Is something the matter, Serena-san?" Neji inquired the clearly aggravated Drystilia.

"Oh, it's nothing, Neji-san. It's just that while the Ikichimatesun can be a very useful aid ability to wield in battle…it has its….drawbacks that I have the misfortune to receive afterwards. Whenever I have the Ikichimatesun activated for an hour or less I get a hell on earth migraine and it gets worse for every hour added on in the duration of my activate kekkei genkai. If it's for more than an hour to two hours I get nauseous, if it's more than two hours to three I get a fever, if it's more than three hours to four I get a bad head cold, if it's more than four hours to five all four side affects mixed together and then with every hour added onto after that it doubles in intensity. So you can imagine why I try not to use it for no longer than an hour, but don't worry, I just have the migraine. Just give me a pain reliever and a good nights rest and I should be good as new the next day," Serena explained.

Tenten winced.

"Well how about we get me over to the hospital to heal my injuries and you can attend to your migraine?" Neji suggested.

"Splendid idea, Neji-san. Would you need assistance in traveling to the hospital for I know that blow must be just as bad as my migraine. You know what? In fact, I will help you as a repayment for the injury. All you have to do is direct me to the hospital for I do not know the layout of this village very well," Serena offered.

Wordlessly she made her way over to the Hyuga and took the arm of the unresisting Hyuga and slung it over her shoulder to help him haul himself to his feet. Supporting himself on Serena's shoulder who had wrapped an arm around to the middle of his ribs on his left side.

"I suppose I could go along with that," Neji sighed.

Tenten giggled at him and Lee and Gai-sensei grinned at the site.

"Come on, we'll give you an escort to keep Neji's rabid fangirls off of your back," Tenten offered.

Serena raised an eyebrow at Neji.

"You, too, huh? I had to deal with them all of the time in all of the other villages when I lived in them, only, they were fan BOYS instead of fan GIRLS. I have no doubt that this village will be any different, either," Serena deadpanned.

Neji sweatdropped.

"Oh, I almost forgot, could one of you please carry my weapons for me since I have my hands full at the moment? That way I don't have to come back here in the events that it'll end up stolen or never retrieved from me getting lost on the way?" Serena asked the available members of Team Gai.

Said team nodded.

_20 minutes later……_

"Excuse me, do you know if there is a place where I can purchase some pain killers around here?" Serena asked a nearby nurse in the hallway.

She had just excused herself from Neji's room, with her weapons and all while a doctor fixed his injuries saying she needed a quick drink and will be right back. When in reality she was just using that as an excuse to be rid of her migraine and go home and go to bed for some much needed sleep.

"Yes, as a matter of fact there is a nearby elevator down this hallway where you can take it to the bottom floor and buy items from the cafeteria right across the hallway of the elevator," the nurse replied.

"Arigatou," Serena thanked and dragged her feet to the said elevator all the while messaging her temples at the same time, gritting her teeth at the pounding in her head as if a handful of knights in heavy armor were set loose to rampage all over inside her skull.

"Yo," a voice rang out as she stood before the elevator waiting for the metal box to arrive.

Serena's heart leaped into her throat and she could have sworn she had jumped 10 feet in the air before she whirled around and glared **hard** at the scarecrow.

"Do you enjoy putting me in agony all of the time, Kakashi-sensei? Good grief, I nearly had a heart attack because of you, and speaking of you-do you realize how much pain and boredom and near death experiences I had to go through today because you decided I need to be tested on how smart I am?" Serena growled at the jounin who was currently smiling behind his mask in nervousness and slight fear from the death glare his student was giving him.

_"Man if looks could kill, I would have been cut up, roasted, slaughtered, drawn and quartered, stabbed multiple times, been fed to demons and then sent through the seven depths of hell and back for an eternity!"_ He mentally cried in fear.

"Hahaha, right sorry for all of that. Care to explain why you are at a hospital and what happened during you day to make you this upset?" Kakashi inquired as a ding! Was heard and the steel door of the elevator slid open.

Serena fake snorted, rolled her eyes and stepped in the elevator and allowed Kakashi to join her before pushing the 1st floor button. Another ding! Sounded and the doors slid shut before the elevator itself descended.

"After you dumped me with your friend, I had to deal with the squealing banshee that hates my guts as she kept yelling and screaming in my ear until Asuma was forced to dismiss the team and took me and that one lazy-ass-pineapple-shinobi-dude, Shikamaruto test us, which by the way was a complete waste of time. Then after I was released from Asuma's clutches I decided to explore the village since I didn't know where everything was. So I went to the market and then to a weapons shop where I met the students of Team Gai and Tenten-san's father and had to avoid becoming blind and deaf from the 'Youth' freaks because Neji-san didn't believe I was the Wandering Kunoichi so I had to fight him to prove it. So I was forced to use my kekkei genkai to win since he used his Byakugan on me. Then during the spar I injured Neji-san and so since it was I who inflicted the injury I volunteered to help take Neji-san to the hospital to get him checked over and to top it all that off I have this huge hell on earth killer migraine that keeps getting worse and worse from using my kekkei genkai and so now I'm headed to the cafeteria to buy a Tylenol the size of Fire Country and go home and go to sleep," Serena explained looking like she was about to fall over and drop dead on the spot.

"Wow, sounds like you had a rough day-wait! Kekkei Genkai? You have a kekkei genkai?" Kakashi gasped.

"Yes, but I'm too aggravated right now to talk about it," Serena groaned out as the elevator came to an abrupt halt, the doors slid open as a sound rang Ding! And Serena rushed out and into the cafeteria across the hall with Kakashi in toe.

"Can I have two Tylenol please?" Serena forced out to the cashier behind the counter.

Paying for the pain reliever, Serena rushed to the nearest water fountain and chased the pills down with a gulp of the liquid with a sigh.

"Whatever it is you want Kakashi, can it wait until tomorrow?" Serena asked the jounin.

"I suppose, but tomorrow I'm getting answers to my questions some of them pertaining about the Kekkei Genkai you told me you suddenly have," Kakashi informed her.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'll see you tomorrow, Kakashi-sensei and if you want my answers try to bring the lateness down to an hour please? I don't think I can stand more than that of Sakura and Naruto's whining and Sasuke's snapping and sighing," Serena droned looking pointedly at the cyclop and then turned and made her way out of the hospital and down the deserted streets of Konoha.

Serena made her way through the streets and eventually found her apartment building and after checking in with Zach, went up to her apartment and proceeded to pass out on her bed, not even bothering to take her shoes off and change her clothes.

* * *

Ren: "And that's the end of Chappie 6."

Sasuke: "R&R Peoples!"


	8. Oh, Goodie! A C Rank Mission!”

Ren: "I am so sorry for not updating for so long

Ren: "I am so sorry for not updating for so long. Working 24/7 with only two days off really takes up your social life and I only just now got to pick my stories back and try to update them and I shall do that by giving you this next chapter."

Ren: "I do not own Naruto if I did I wouldn't have to work 24/7 and would have time to update my stories."

* * *

**-****Chapter 7****: "Oh, Goodie! A C-Rank Mission!"-**

Serena yawned out of boredom as she sat cross legged on the bridge Kakashi-sensei wanted Team 7 to meet on. It was now 7:10 in the freaking morning and still no sign of the scarecrow.

Let me tell what everyone is doing while they are waiting shall I? Well the first to arrive at the designated meeting spot, as usual, was Serena who just plopped on her bum right next to the railing on the left side and proceeded to meditate the time away until it was time to train or do missions.

Then Sasuke showed up only to scowl at not being the first one to show up for the second time and leaned on the railing with his back against the railing, arms crossed, his head bowed to so he could brood.

Then came the headaches of the morning those being in the forms of Sakura and Naruto. Sakura arrived before Naruto, completely ignoring Serena by chatting Sasuke's ear off about tedious things like her hair, Sasuke, Ino-pig, Sasuke, missions, Sasuke, training, what she did that morning to get ready, and Sasuke were just a few of the things that she rambled on and on about.

This kept ticking Serena off more and more until finally she snapped open her eyes to fling a kunai that purposely nicked the pinkette in the arm. Sakura shrieked and started cursing at Serena.

That is until Serena snapped, "Urusai you pink-haired annoying hakuchi! In case you haven't noticed your oh-so precious 'Sasuke-kun' doesn't even freaking care about the things that come out of your mouth so do us all a favor and stop wasting your breath or I'll cut off that hair you seem to care oh-so much about and throw you into the river below this bridge!"

Sakura huffed, cursed Serena one more time before turning away sticking her nose in the air and fell silent.

_"Arigatou!"_ Serena mentally cried and then closed her eyes and went back to meditating.

Then Naruto came and started shouting about how he was going to finally beat Sasuke in a match and how he was finally going to get an actual mission. A tick mark appeared on Serena's forehead as she tried to restrain herself from smacking the dobe.

Sighing, Serena opened her eyes and looking at Naruto she calmly asked, "Naruto would you please stop shouting? I'm having a really bad morning today and if you would be courteous enough I would appreciate it."

Naruto calmed down and said in a regular tone of voice, "Gomenasai, Serena-san, I will try not to be so loud next time."

With that he didn't speak another word at least if he did it would actually be in a normal volume that made Sasuke and Sakura stare at the boy, wondering how on earth Serena managed to get him to do that.

Serena sighed blissfully at the sweet silence in her ears and went back to meditating. That is until Naruto tapped her on the shoulder causing her to look at him in annoyance.

"Nani?" She questioned.

"Um, I was wondering if you could teach me how to do that meditating thing you are doing? I would like to learn it if you will teach me," Naruto calmly asked.

Serena raised her eyebrows, surprised at the question. Then Serena's expression became neutral once again and she bobbed her head in a positive confirmation.

"Sure, take a seat," She answered the genin.

Immediately, Naruto smiled and plopped down on his bum in front of the kunoichi.

"Ok, what do I have to do?" Naruto asked looking eagerly at Serena.

"First, you need to cross your legs and put your arms in a relaxing position. Some like to cross their arms and some like to put them in their laps. Whichever you find comfortable to you is fine," Serena instructed. She didn't realize that Sasuke had been listening as well nor Sakura but only because Sasuke was.

"PLOP!"

Several seconds later….

"PLOP!"

Serena turned her head to see both Sasuke and Sakura sitting not ten inches away from her with their legs crossed and arms resting in their laps.

"-The heck?" blurted Serena with her eyes narrowed in confusion.

"What, we can't learn as well? Besides if meditation has helped to get you this strong then I want to learn as well," Sasuke defended himself.

Sakura looked attentive to Sakura.

"I thought you and Squealer hated me?" Serena said suspiciously to the pinkette.

"Well I certainly may not like how you can so easily get Sasuke-kun's attention but when it comes to learning new things-sign me up, Chief!" Sakura said.

Serena glanced at Naruto to see him still looking eagerly at her as if this was nothing new to him. Serena sighed and shook her head then situated herself to where she was able to see all three of them.

"Ok, the next step is you want to close your eyes and find your center. You want to take all of your thoughts and emotions and shove them into the back of your mind and just listen. Become aware of your surroundings through your senses. Of hearing, touch, taste and smell. Hear the blades of the grass bend to the will of the wind, feel the splinters of the wood that makes this bridge beneath you, taste the faint aroma of honeysuckle and dew, and smell the scent of wildflowers and other scents around you.

Even your breathing, inhale then wait for 15 seconds and then exhale and do it again. In meditation you are sharpening, enhancing, using your senses to detect your surroundings and dangers and becoming more aware with your mind at the same time," Serena explained so thoroughly that even Naruto understood.

So it was this how Kakashi found his students when he arrived. Meditating.

_"Hm, you really are something, Serena-san,"_ he thought in awe and respect.

Then he had to duck from the incoming kunai that was suddenly projected at his head by the kunoichi he was only a few minutes ago mentally praising.

"Well what do you know-you actually listened to my words yesterday," Serena taunted the jounin as she stood staring at the scarecrow with a smirk underneath her mask.

The others got to their feet.

"Well, you know I always love a good story," was Kakashi's excuse.

Then Sakura and Naruto shouted in unison, "YOU'RE LATE, KAKASHI-SENSEI!!"

Kakashi chuckled,"Well you see this old lady-" He started.

"USOTSUKI!!" The two interrupted him heatedly.

Kakashi chuckled again.

"Alright, today on our agenda for today is tree walking along with the help of yours truly and Serena-chan, here," Kakashi informed them.

Serena scowled and crossed her arms.

"It's Serena-SAN to you Kakashi-sensei. I hate being called Serena-chan it's so annoying!" She growled at the copy-nin.

"Uh, right, gomenasai, Serena-SAN," Kakashi apologized.

"Whatever, let's just get this started so we can get onto missions and whatnot," Serena grumbled and turned on her heel and stalked off towards the forest.

The four left behind looked at each other and then shrugged before trailing after the Ikichimatesun user, unknown to them of course.

Deep within the woods that had some good trees, tall wise, Serena began lecturing the three genin seeing as how Kakashi just sat down on a log and started reading that cursed, orange book of his.

"Alright, today we are going to focus on your chakra control and development by tree walking. The objective is to be able to climb all the way to the top of a tree _without using your hands_," Serena instructed.

"Without using our hands! Are you insane? No one can do that!" Naruto exclaimed the thought on all of the current genins minds.

"No one can, huh? Did you hear that, Kakashi-sensei? No one can climb a tree without using their hands, he says," Serena drawled at the jounin.

"Why don't you humor them a bit, Serena-san?" he simply suggested before turning a page.

"You read my mind," Serena commented choosing to ignore his actions and lack there of attention to his pupils he was SUPPOSED to be helping to teach instead of sitting on a log reading porn all day.

Next thing Serena did was to turn right around and stroll up to the nearest tree. Then, to the three genins Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto, the most amazing eye popping and jaw dropping thing happened. Serena put one foot horizontally on the trunk of the tree and then one foot before the other continuing the process until she came to a stop upside down on branch high up from the ground and looked down past the end of her dangling ponytail and bangs, grinning behind her mask at them.

"WHAT ARE YOU A FRIGGIN' BANPAIA OR SOMETHING?!" Naruto shouted up to her totally freaked out.

Serena sighed and rolled her eyes before releasing the chakra summoned at the bottom of her feet making her drop to the ground while doing a flip in midair to land on her feet with a grunt.

"No, I am not a banpaia, Naruto. If I was wouldn't I have burst into flames long before now from the sunlight?" Serena countered.

"Oh, right! Forgot about that part," Naruto muttered.

"It's simple really. All you have to do is summon chakra to your feet. But here comes the tricky part, you have to focus on the amount of chakra you send to your feet because if you send too much chakra to your feet you'll harm the tree and get blasted off of it where as if you send too little you'll just fall right off and end up eating dirt in the process. Use kunai to mark your progress by carving the tree every time you feel you are about to fall.

Right now you should start off running at the tree to get a good start and get more comfortable, then when you have ran all the way up to the top of the tree-keep practicing it until you can _walk_ all the way up the tree without having to spare a second thought to do it. This will not only help your chakra control but your concentration as well," Serena explained.

The three nodded to show they understood. Claiming a tree each before closing their eyes and attempting to summon chakra to their feet. While the three were attempting to walk/ run up the tree using only their feet, Serena caught Kakashi's look and he jerked his head in a direction away from the training genin.

_"Oh, yeah, I still have to explain to him about my kekkei genkai I supposedly have now,"_ Serena remembered.

Then she stood up from her spot on a log and started walking towards the direction Kakashi wanted to go the sensei joining her.

"Hey! Hey! Where are you two going? You can't just leave us!" Naruto shrieked at them when he caught them leaving making Sasuke and Sakura direct their attention onto the two.

"Just go back to your training, Naruto. Besides we still need to plan more on what we are going to train you three on next," Kakashi simply said and the two continued walking away.

"Can't you do that here?" Sakura hollered after them.

"No," they replied in unison.

Sakura and Naruto fell over in deadpan.

"Che, whatever," Sasuke grunted and then went back to training and soon the others joined as well when they could no longer see the outlines of Kakashi and Serena.

"Alright, spill, how come you all of a sudden have a kekkei genkai now and what is it?" Kakashi interrogated once they were far enough away out of hearing range.

Serena sighed already feeling a migraine coming on.

"Alright, the reason I all of a sudden have a kekkei genkai is because I never told anyone ever before that I had a kekkei genkai, wanting to keep it a secret because of past issues that I'm not going into and my kekkei genkai is known as the Ikichimatesun," Serena answered.

"The Ikichimatesun? What does it do?" Kakashi questioned curiously.

"Well basically it's like….oh, how do I put this? Umm…ok, it's like taking the Byakugan and the Sharingan, yes, I know what the Sharingan is, and putting them together. Does that make sense?" Serena tried to explain.

Kakashi nodded.

"In what sense, though? And how do you know about the Sharingan or the Byakugan in fact?" He asked suspiciously.

"I know about the Byakugan because Neji-san used it in our spar yesterday and I know about the Sharingan because of personal reasons I don't feel comfortable to discuss openly with you at the moment.

In the sense that I can, when I activate my Ikichimatesun of course, see my opponent no matter how fast they are, see through genjutsus and illusions not to mention copy jutsus like the Sharingan can. Then I can see the chakra coils/ pathways of shinobi or kunoichi and tenketsu but I can't close them like a Hyuga can. Also I can see three hundred sixty degrees. Then there's also the fact that it increases my skills by tenfold and sprout wings to fly," Serena explained.

_(A/N: Now you know why I warned you about my o.c.)_

"That's…..unbelievable," Kakashi whispered in awe.

"May I see what it looks like?" He asked after several minutes of silence.

Serena shook her head in the negative.

"Iie I am afraid not, see while the Ikichimatesun can be a powerful aid to use in the battlefield…it has its…..drawbacks. That was why I was so cranky and irritated yesterday. If I use the Ikichimatesun for an hour or under I get a huge, hell-on-earth migraine to which I'd rather not have this early in the morning. After that it gets worse for every hour added on to the duration I keep the Ikichimatesun activated. If I use it for more than one hour to two I get nauseous if I use it for more than two hours to three I get a fever, I use it for more than three hours to four I get a bad head cold and for five and beyond all four symptoms are mixed together and worsens as each hour passes," Serena explained.

Kakashi scratched the back of his head as he looked stumped at this.

"Huh, bummer," He deadpanned.

Serena gave him a look that said, "Tell me about it!"

"So, shall we go stop the trio so they still have enough chakra to do missions? We need to get as many D and C-rank missions if they are going to participate in the Chunnin exams. They're bound to pop up soon," Serena asked.

"Yeah, see here's what I've been thinking about that. I at least want them to experience at least one C-rank mission before the Chunnin exams. But with the way we are going with training frenzy and fewer missions the most we'll get is 1 C-rank mission and maybe 40 D-rank missions. So I was thinking and in your case this just might work, I help train the genin and you focus on the missions. They'll of course get to do that one C-rank mission and some D-rank missions but with you tackling our mission problem we'll be able to qualify for the Chunnin exams and once a week or something we'll get together and plan the training and do missions all together," Kakashi suggested.

"That's not a bad idea, actually, and I'll make sure to leave a mizu bunshin or something so it won't look like I'm abandoning them. The clone would help explain things and you do the demonstrations. Since I know the dangers of missions and can handle them on my own the Hokage would probably agree," Serena thought aloud.

"But, we'd have to talk to the Hokage first. Why don't you and a clone of mine run along ahead to the Hokage and try to talk to him while I round up the gakis and take them there. That way you two have plenty of time to talk and create a mizu bunshin or something to make it look like you were waiting for us and do the missions if the Hokage assigns you any. I'll be able to tell if it's you or a clone so don't worry," Kakashi suggested.

Serena nodded and Kakashi created a Kage Bunshin and they headed over to the Hokage Tower.

"Alright, kiddos, you can stop for now. You still have to do missions you know." Kakashi informed them when he reappeared.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei, eh-where'd Serena-san go?" Naruto asked curiously as the three stopped.

"She went on ahead to the Hokage tower, hopefully she'll be able to get us a good mission. Now come on let's not keep her waiting," Kakashi gestured toward the bridge.

The three shrugged before following their sensei.

_Meanwhile…._

"Ah, hai I see where you're coming from. But, you do realize you'll be doing these missions by yourself most of the time and these missions will, no doubt, be more challenging than a mere C or D-Rank mission?" The Hokage pointed out to Serena.

Serena nodded, "Hai, I do and I am more than capable to complete them. Douzo, sir, if you agree to this I promise I will not ask anything else from you," She bargained.

The Hokage pondered the pros and cons of his decisions for several minutes before finally looking at the kunoichi standing before him.

"Alright, I'll agree to do this. But if it gets to be too much for you to handle, come to me and we'll figure something out," The Hokage reasoned.

Serena bowed at the waist to show her gratitude.

"Hai, arigatou, Hokage-sama," She thanked him.

"Well, I imagine you'll be wanting to get started right away so let's see what we have for you before the rest of your squad shows up shall we? Oh, and you can dismiss yourself now," the Sandaime directed this last bit to the Kage Bunshin of Kakashi's.

Said clone nodded and poofed out of existence.

"Hm, well here's a B-Ranked mission you can do. Recently there has been a series of multiple attacks on a poor village in the Land of Swamps. I want you to go to this village, figure out the cause of these attacks and eliminate them, here's a scroll with directions to get to the concerned village," the Sandaime explained tossing her the scroll.

"Duration?" Serena questioned.

"A week and a half. Now off with you, leave as soon as you are ready. Dismissed and do not forget to leave a clone," the Sandaime ushered sensing the chakra signatures of the rest of team 7 almost at the Hokage tower.

Serena nodded leaving a clone before rushing out of the office to her apartment to pack. Thirty minutes later Serena was to be seen by the guards leaving the confines of Konoha, assumed by the guards themselves that she was packed as they watched her jump from tree to tree.

The plus side about this mission was, the land of swamps wasn't that far away the distance only a half a day at the rate of speed Serena was traveling. The bad side was the land itself. The Land of Swamps pretty much says it all. It's one giant mass of land with more muddy swamps than there was land. So more than half the time Serena was traveling waist high in murky water with stubborn mud sucking at the soles of her feet, winged insects attacking her exposed skin and thick fog hanging everywhere.

_"Okay, lets look at the scroll again,"_ Serena decided as she stood knee-deep in the water blowing her bangs out of her face.

She thanked Kami that she decided not to wear her cloak on this mission or it'd be like trying to get a stubborn roba to move.

"Oh good, the village is only a mile away from here. Just have to head east," She said aloud but when she glanced at the map in her scroll.

Putting away said scroll, Serena went back to trudging through the swamp.

_Two hours later….._

"Gashi," Serena greeted a sonmin with a bow at the waist.

"Gashi," the sonmin replied back with hesitance.

"The Village Hidden in the Leaves sent me to aid your people in ceasing the attacks on your village. If you would, please take me to your village elder or leader so that I may acquire the information I need to defeat these villains," Serena explained and requested from the villager.

The sonmin seemed to have calmed down at this news as shown when he started leading Serena the way to the village leader.

_A week and a half later….._

"That took a while," Serena sighed as she made her way to the Hokage Tower returning from the B-Rank Mission. Depressing crimson blood and itchy mud caked on her clothes and skin from the hizoku and low-class nuke-nin she had to kill in the swamps.

"Better hurry and check in with the Hokage then find my clone," She reminded herself picking up her running pace to the Hokage Tower.

_Five minutes later….._

"Sandaime-sama, I have returned from my mission with it completed, the village elder gave me the money he agreed to give when said mission had been complete along with the money he gave me a scroll I was requested to be given to you," Serena informed the 3rd tossing him the financial material and scroll while speaking.

"Hm, very good. You did well but I guess I should expect no less from the Wandering Kunoichi. I imagine you would like to speak with your jounin instructor, now correct? I'll have a shinobi summon him and your clone so it won't deem suspicious to Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto so you may continue with the D-Rank mission they are doing. Something that has to deal with cleaning up the river I think," Sandaime informed her.

"Arigatou, Sandaime-sama," Serena thanked and waited with the 3rd for Kakashi and her clone to show up.

"Ah, Serena-san how was the mission?" Kakashi questioned the kunoichi when he and the water clone arrived.

"Muddy," Serena answered bluntly and dispelled her clone.

The Sandaime and Jounin Instructor snorted in amusement.

"Well, luckily you arrived just in time, we're just beginning with our-I think it's the 15th-no wait! 16th D-Ranked mission. Also, to explain about the mud just say I pushed you in a muddy river on the way there," Kakashi said then turned and walked out with Serena blinking as she followed.

"Hey guys where'd you go? And what's with the mud, Serena-san? The river's not that muddy," Naruto said loudly as Serena and Kakashi neared the three genin.

The three each had a basket strapped to their backs and were two long sticks to pick up cans and trash from the river they were standing mid-thigh in. Serena glared at the scarecrow who was scratching the back of his head nervously.

"This baka kept pushing me into the mud on the river banks making our way back. Had to avoid some fanboys," Serena growled as she glared harder at the jounin.

Said jounin just stuck his nose in his porn book. Then Serena got an idea and quick as a flash, she snatched the perverted book right from the jounin's grasp and merely tossed it into the river.

"Nani! Iie! Serena-san why'd you go and do that? That was my newest edition!" Kakashi whined as he gaped like a fish gasping for air at Serena in horror.

"You shouldn't be reading that in front of us anyway! You're our teacher and teachers are supposed to set good examples for their students. Reading porn is not a good example," Serena scolded the scarecrow.

Naruto was laughing at the priceless expression on Kakashi's face, Sakura was fighting back the urge to giggle and Sasuke was smirking in amusement.

"Serena-san," Kakashi started in a deadly tone of voice as he glared at Serena with a very tangible killer intent now twirling two kunai in one hand.

_"Ok, he's in scary mode right now. Back away slowly, Serena, just back away slowly,"_ Serena mentally stuttered taking a step back.

"Hai?" Serena said slowly before taking another step back.

"If you want to live, you'll run, now!" Kakashi threatened taking a step forward.

"Uh, crap!" Serena muttered loudly then took a leap and landed on top of the water beside Sasuke holding her hands out to keep the pissed off Scarecrow at bay.

"Now, now, Kakashi-sensei. Be reasonable, be calm, calm is good. I mean it's just a book right?" Serena said in an attempt to deter the jounin.

"Uh, I think that was the wrong thing to say," Sasuke whispered out of the corner of his mouth as he saw steam come out of Kakashi's ears.

"No duh, Aho," She whispered back and then jumped to avoid the kunai Kakashi all of a sudden launched at her.

"JUST A BOOK? JUST A BOOK? LIKE HERU IT'S JUST A BOOK!" Kakashi roared as he came flying at the kunoichi swinging a right hook at her head.

"Oh, crap, crap, crap, CRAP!" Serena cried and did a back flip to avoid the punch.

"Well if you love the thing so much why don't you just by another one and marry it?" Serena shouted back at the Jounin before doing a one handed cartwheel to the left avoid a right axel kick.

"BUY ANOTHER ONE? DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH MY BOOKS COST!? 1,000 RYO JUST FOR ONE!" Kakashi shouted lunging at her.

Serena grabbed Kakashi by the shoulders when he came closer, turned him the opposite way and then kicked him in the bottom making him lose focus and fall head first into the water. Naruto roared with laughter at the sight, Sakura burst out laughing and even Sasuke had to put his fist in his mouth to keep from laughing.

When Kakashi came up to the surface coughing and spluttering, he looked up to see Serena towering over him since she was still standing on the surface of the water with her hands on her hips, smirking at him.

"All the more reason not to buy the things," She jeered at him.

_Later at the Hokage Tower….._

After the mission was over they went back to the Hokage tower to report and get another mission since it was still several hours before lunch. There Naruto had a fit when he found out they were going to be given yet ANOTHER D-Ranked mission.

"AWWW, NOT ANOTHER D-RANKED MISSION! NO MORE KID STUFF! ALL WE'VE BEEN DOING IS CLEANING UP THE PLACE!! C'MON OLD MAN GIVE US A HARDER MISSION!!" He finally shouted at the Sandaime.

"Naruto, that's enough! You will take the missions we give you or none at all. You're not yet ready to take on any harder missions. We assign these missions according to your rank not your whining!" Iruka who was sitting next to the Hokage scolded.

'CUT THE CRAP IRUKA-SENSEI! I'M A SHINOBI NOW SO I WANT A SHINOBI MISSION NOT ANY OF THIS KID STUFF!" Naruto argued back and with a that he turned his back on the Hokage and Iruka plopping down on the ground on his bum crossing his arms and legs with a pout on his face.

Serena and Kakashi sighed with their faces in their hand.

_"This can not end well!"_ Serena groaned in her head.

_"I just know I'm going to get yelled at later for this!"_ Kakashi groaned in his.

Sasuke and Sakura, however, could not help but to secretly agree with the blonde's words. The Sandaime sighed taking the pipe out of his mouth with his head bowed and eyes closed.

He sighed again before finally speaking for the first time since they had arrived in the office, "Alright, I suppose we can give you a C-Rank mission."

"-But _Hokage-sama!"_ Iruka tried to protest.

"It's alright Iruka. Naruto is right, he's a shinobi now so he should be given a challenging shinobi mission not one that requires taking out the trash or walking inu," the Sandaime assured the Chunnin.

"Alright, a C-Rank mission. Let's find you one," the Sandaime started off.

Serena shook her head.

_"As if I don't have enough on my plate, now I have to keep my eye on these gakis so they don't get themselves killed. Not to mention I just got back not two hours ago from a B-Rank mission myself. Ahh, the life of a wanderer is an interesting one that's for sure,"_ She thought.

"Ah, here's one. A man from the land of the waves needs guarding until he finishes completing a bridge he's trying to build," the Sandaime informed the squad.

Serena immediately switched to serious mode and spoke up finally, "Enemy rank? Duration of the mission?"

Kakashi looked impressed that someone other than him asked these types of questions while Sasuke and Sakura mentally took notes figuring that these are the questions they are expected to ask when they themselves are assigned missions without the kunoichi later on in the future. Naruto just had this _'Whatever-I'm tough! I can take anything on!'_ expression.

"Nothing higher than a low-level nuke-nin or hizoku and the mission will last however long it takes to get the bridge build," the 3rd answered.

Serena nodded staying silent as she no longer had any questions to ask. The Sandaime took a draft from his pipe before exhaling. Looking past the 5 members of squad 7 to glance at the tobira behind them before speaking in a tone loud enough for anyone outside to hear, "You can come in now."

A few seconds later the tobira slid open causing the squad to turn to see who was entering. At the threshold stood an old man wearing a ti-boushi and nouka clothes his cheeks rosy from the sake he kept fastened to his hip.

"Hn, don't tell me these are the genin that are suppose to be protecting me?" the man said ruggedly after he took one look at the squad.

"Squad 7, this is the Bridge builder you'll be guarding, his name is Tazuna. Tazuna, I can assure you that these genin here are more than capable in taking care of your well being," the Sandaime said hoping to assure the client.

"Hn, I doubt it!" the man grunted before continuing, "This team looks like they're about to drop dead! Especially that weird-looking, shorty haisha in the middle."

Naruto laughed while saying, "Haha, who's the weird-looking, shorty haisha in the middle?"

Then Sasuke and Sakura lined up next to Naruto to show him that Tazuna was referring to the blonde. Once Naruto realized this he became very angry and leaped at the bridge builder to sock him yelling at the top of his lungs only to be held back by the collar by Kakashi.

"Naruto, our job is supposed to _protect_ our client NOT kill him!" Kakashi scolded calmly through Naruto's shouts. Everybody else but Tazuna sighed.

While everyone was walking out of the office later on, Kakashi and Serena hung back a little to get the 411 on how the three genin were doing.

"So have they finished the tree walking exercise, yet?" Serena asked the jounin.

"Yeah and I've been training them on that exercise while you were gone, they are so good at it now they could walk backwards up the tallest tree, asleep!" Kakashi answered.

"Ok, then the next step is water walking and the location we are going to will provide plenty of that," Serena said and Kakashi nodded.

"I'll have us meet at the gates in an hour, that should give you plenty of time to clean up and what not," Kakashi informed the kunoichi.

Said kunoichi nodded and then took to the rooftops heading home to freshen up.

"Where's she going?" Naruto asked Kakashi when Serena left.

"To freshen up and carve her name in her hitae-ate. Don't forget to do that, Naruto. You'll have to do that before you can leave the village. Now go pack and meet at the gates in an hour," the scarecrow answered before leaving them in a POOF!

* * *

Ren: "That's the end of Chappie 7."

Ren: "Read and Review please! Glossary coming up!"

**Glossary****:**

**Urusai:** Shut up!

**Hakuchi:** Retard

**Arigatou:** Thank you

**Gomenasai:** I am sorry, Forgive me.

**Dobe:**Dead last, loser.

**Nani:** What?

**Genin:** Lowest ranked shinobi or kunoichi in a village in comparison to the Hokage.

**Chunnin: **Second ranked lowest shinobi or kunoichi in a village in comparison to the Hokage

**Jounin:** Third ranked lowest shinobi or kunoichi in a village comparison to the Hokage, jounin will often take on a team of genin to teach and guide in the principles of a shinobi or kunoichi.

**Hokage:** Highest ranked shinobi or kunoichi in a village.

**Kunoichi**: Female ninja

**Shinobi:** Male ninja

**Usotsuki:** Liar!

**Ikichimatesun:** Blood Mate kekkei genkai to the Wandering Kunoichi A.K.A Serena Drystilia.

**Byakugan:** Bird's Eye Sight kekkei genkai known to be the kekkei genkai of the Hyuga Clan one the main prodigious and noble clans in Konohagakure no Sao.

**Sharingan:** The Copy Wheel Kekkei Genkai known to be the kekkei genkai of the Uchiha Clan also one of the main prodigious and noble clans in Konohagakure no Sao. It is also said the many believe the Sharingan to be derived from the Byakugan in some way.

**Banpaia:** Vampire

**Kekkei Genkai**: Blood line limit

**Sensei:** Teacher

**Tenketsu:** Chakra points located on a Shinobi or Kunoichi's body.

**Iie:** No

**Hai:** Yes

**Mizu Bunshin:** A water clone in the next step of a regular bunshin, a mizu bunshin is made to think and act independently of its user.

**Kage Bunshin: **A shadow clone in the next step of a regular bunshin, a kage bunshin is made to think and act independently of its user. Slightly stronger than the Mizu Bunshin no jutsu.

**Douzo:** Please

**Roba:** Donkey(s)

**Gashi:** "Greetings!"

**Sonmin:** Villager

**Nuke-nin:** Missing ninja(s)

**Hizoku:** Bandit(s)

**Baka:** Idiot, moron

**Aho:** Idiot, Dumbass

**Heru:** Hell

**Tobira:** Door

**Ryo:** Japanese Currency

**Inu:** Dog(s)

**Ti-boushi:** Tea Hat

**Nouka:** Farmer

**Haisha:** Loser


	9. The Demon Hidden in the Mist!

Ren: "Hello, everyone, long time no see. Anyway here's the next chapter!"

Sasuke: "Ren does not own Naruto if she did she would be a multibillionaire."

* * *

**-****Chapter 8****: The Demon Hidden in the Mist!-**

_One hour later….._

"Alright, this is going to be so sugoi! Just you wait this is going to be a breeze!" Naruto exclaimed as they stepped through the gates of Konoha.

The others sighed at Naruto's recklessness and ego.

"Naruto, would you settle down please? I know this is your first time outside of the village but you need to have a clear head and be more aware of your surroundings. There are many dangers out here in the wilderness you just may find yourself six feet under if you don't start taking things seriously out here," Serena lectured the blonde from beside Tazuna wanting to have the client they were supposed to be guarding where she can at least see the guy.

She had her black cloak on again but her hood was down and unlike the rest of the genin she had no bag to be lugged on her back.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, sheesh!" Naruto grumbled crossing his arms.

Serena sighed closing her eyes pinching the bridge of her nose in aggravation.

_"Only three minutes outside of the village and already these guys are driving me up the wall!"_

"Stop talking like you know how to survive out here, you're just another one of those snot-nosed genin that doesn't know a thing about danger," Tazuna said grumpily.

"Just goes to show how much you know," Serena shot back giving him an annoyed look.

"And what's that supposed to mean!?" Tazuna hissed.

"That you judge people to quickly base on their appearances alone," Serena pointed out in defense.

Finding nothing to say in response, Tazuna fell silent and stormed up front next to Sakura and Kakashi.

After an hour of more traveling the formation had changed a little. Naruto was still up front wanting to be the leader of the group followed by a rather annoyed looking Sakura from Naruto's constant shouting and attempts to ask her out. Then Sasuke brought up the first middle man doing nothing but glaring at everything around him as if he was expecting bandits or low level shinobi to jump out any time now. Tazuna was to be guarded as the second middle man after Sasuke; Kakashi had picked his spot to be after the team's client all the while giggling at that orange book of his. Whoever said men can't multitask obviously hadn't met Hatake Kakashi.

Then Serena, who wanted to have a good view of their client to be in her set and yet be as far away from Naruto's chatter, brought up the rear making sure no enemy could spring an attack or ambush on their client from behind.

Everything seemed to be perfectly A-Okay in Serena's observing that is until she spotted the lone puddle to the side of the road a little ways up ahead that no one seemed to notice. Quickening her steps she lightly tapped Kakashi on the shoulder causing him to quirk his head to the side so he could glance at his student while still walking forward.

"Such a nice, cloudless day today, eh?" She said to the jounin but directed her eyes once in the direction of the puddle.

Out of the corner of his eye Kakashi also glanced at the puddle immediately silently thanking Serena was so sharp.

To cover up his glance he chuckled and commented, "So you noticed too, eh? You think you can handle the heat of the sun's rays in that cloak?"

Serena knew that question to be meant as _"Shall you take care of it or shall I?"_

Serena rolled her eyes and drawled, "Please, I'm hardly sweating in this thing! You worry too much Kakashi-sense! Just go back to your porn and I'll be fine."

Kakashi caught the hidden message as _"I'll take care of it."_

Satisfied with her answer, Kakashi went back to his porn book and Serena dropped back to her original spot albeit a tad bit slower in her pace than before she moved. Both appeared to be unaware of any sort of danger just like the rest of the squad but underneath the mask they were waiting for the trap to spring so they could counterattack.

When they had gotten several feet past the "Puddle" the trap was finally sprung as two unknown nuke-nin with cloaks, metal masks, and a metal claw on one hand each with chains, appeared flying out of the pond with a "Splash".

Racing at quick speeds they swung their chains and bound Serena in place with her arms pinned to her sides.

"Serena-san!" Naruto exclaimed as the troupe turned to face their hindered comrade with wide or, in Kakashi's case, wary eyes.

"Iie, stay and protect the client! He's our number one priority, I'm fine. Protect the Bridge Builder!" Serena ordered from her spot when Sasuke and Kakashi, both, took a step to aid the kunoichi.

"Are you insane? You're in those chains, we've got to get you out," Sakura exclaimed looking at the kunoichi as if she'd gone mad.

"Iie, she's right! Tazuna is our biggest concern, stay and protect him," Kakashi ordered.

Before anything else could happen one of the two nin chuckled darkly and said," It's too late for that!"

Then the duo tugged hard on the chains making Serena cry out before her body was ripped to shreds right before the squad's very eyes to their utmost horror.

"SERENA-SAN!!" Naruto cried out in anguish not thinking or catching onto Serena and Kakashi's plan.

Then the two nin darted towards the blonde at speeds that shocked the said blonde swinging their chains at him. Quickly to taking action, Sasuke darted forward and jumped only to fling a shuriken to pin the chains to a tree sending a kunai after that to reinforce the bind. Then he landed on each of the two nin's arms with his back facing them and then kicked them square in the face.

The chains broke as the nin's were kicked away but soon they recovered from the blow as one darted for the Uchiha the other raced past said Uchiha with his claw poised for an attack for the bridge builder who took a step back in fear.

Sakura stepped in front of Tazuna a kunai raised with both hands in front of her to hopefully deter their charging attacker. Gulping she closed her eyes and waited for the oncoming blow but paused when a metallic Clash! rang through the air.

Opening her emerald green eyes, said eyes widened in shock at the picture before her. Apparently Serena wasn't as "dead" as everyone came to believe. Far from it in fact as the kunoichi stood-well more like squatted-with an arm raised wielding one of her sais to block the claws of the nin much to his displeasure. The relative of the sai Serena held to stop the claws was captured in her other hand to hang at her side.

Then Serena's head turned to the side so she could glance out of the corner of her eye at the pinkette with a smirk underneath her mask.

"Is that all you got? Cotton-candy chick," She sneered at the Haruno who was still gaping at her.

Then using her free sai Serena aimed for the exposed neck of the nin who used a kunai to block it. Then she kicked him in the stomach that sent him flying back towards Kakashi who used the butt of a kunai to hit the pressure point in the back of the nin's neck causing him to fall face down to the ground unconscious just as the other nin did so from Sasuke knocking him out.

Sakura and Naruto gasped the blonde making a gesture to move towards the bridge builder when Kakashi's voice rang out, "Naruto, stop moving. The two demon brother's claws have poison on them, if you move the poison will just spread faster."

A "Holy crap!" look befell on the blonde's face and he froze on the spot. Serena sighed sheathing her sais in their respective places before walking over to the boy and started to inspect the shinobi's hand that had a _tiny_ cut on it.

"Alright, there are two ways to get the poison out; you don't have that much so these two should do. Do you want the slightly painful way or the not so slightly painful way? Take your pick," Serena offered him after inspecting the wound.

"The non-painful way sounds good," the blonde said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Serena shrugged and then yanked down her mask, brought the wound to her mouth to start sucking the blood and poison away at the ground only to resume the task of sucking the poison out again.

Naruto looked shocked and surprised at this as he never knew anyone that would do something like that for him.

At this time Sasuke proceeded to walk up to Naruto to sneer with a smirk, "Hey gaki, you didn't get hurt did you? Scaredy cat!"

Naruto was going to argue back when Serena took this time to spit the last of the blood and poison at the ground then said, "Alright, I've gotten the poison out but next time when you find yourself in another situation like this, in order to get the poison out you need to either stab the wound to reopen it and get the poison out or suck on the wound and spit out the blood and poison until you no longer taste the poison on your tongue which should be bitter."

Then she wiped the blood from her mouth and pushed her mask back up over her mouth before taking out a roll of bandages to wrap Naruto's hand.

Then she turned to pin a glare at the bridge builder and said in a cold voice, "Alright, talk-why were the notorious A-class nuke-nin known as the Demon Brothers after you?"

"That's what I was about to ask!" Kakashi exclaimed with a pout.

Serena rolled her eyes.

Tazuna tried to defend himself by saying, "Me? I have no idea what you are talking about!"

"Please!" Serena drawled before continuing, "You and I both know that those two nin were after you! I _purposely_ **let** them attack me! Kakashi and I planned it, we know they were after you after that nin charged at you and Sakura-san just proves my words! They created this ambush just to get to you!"

"Wait, ambush? How did you know this was an ambush?" Sakura questioned.

"Don't tell me none of you guys noticed or thought anything about the puddle on the side of the road!? C'mon think about it-a nice, wet puddle on the side of the road on a nice sunny day like this when it hasn't rained for days, does that not _scream_ "SUSPICIOUS" to you?" Serena deadpanned to the pinkette.

"You guys need to be wary about your surroundings more," Kakashi commented to the three.

"Oh, like you were any better, Kakashi?" Serena questioned dubiously.

Kakashi didn't do anything but give her an "Urusai!" look.

"So spill-why were two A-class nuke-nins after you?" Kakashi asked the bridge builder in an attempt to change the subject.

Eventually Tazuna caved and confessed his story.

"Look, gomenasai I lied to you, okay? Our country is very poor and on top of that our country is being run by this evil man named Gatou that makes our country poorer and poorer. In an effort to make our country better we started building a bridge to the mainland but Gatou and his goons have been threatening us that if we don't stop he'll kill us. But we've got to build this bridge! It's our only hope and a C-Rank mission is the only thing we could afford. Gomenasai, gomenasai," He said bitterly.

Kakashi sighed and Serena echoed it when she looked down at the two nuke-nins that need to dealt with, still.

"I'll take care of these two. I'll say it right now that I'm all for continuing this mission even though it would be considered an A-rank mission, now. A mission like this would be great experience for the others, but if they feel like they are not up for a mission of this caliber then I won't argue," Serena added her two cents in before she hauled the nuke-nin in front of her over her shoulder and walked over to the one Sasuke knocked out.

Grabbing the nuke-nin's ankle she started dragging him into the forest taking extra effort to drag him over rocks to knock his head. When the kunoichi came back from her little escapade into the forest it seemed that the Drystilia had missed out on something because Kakashi was rewrapping Naruto's hand and Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna were all standing a little ways away down the road looking like they were waiting to get going.

"So has the committee come to a decision?" Serena spoke up drawing everyone's attention to the kunoichi.

Seeing as how he had finished wrapping Naruto's hand, Kakashi stood up from his kneeling position and said, "Hai, the committee has decided that we continue to the Land of Waves."

The only thing Serena had to say to that was, "Then let's get this show on the road."

* * *

"Yay, we're finally here!" Naruto shouted from his spot up front in the small boat they floated in.

BONK!

"Urusai, teinousha! You want to give away our position?" Serena hissed through her teeth glaring at the blonde who was currently rubbing at the bump on his head.

"Whoops, hehe, gomenasai minasan," Naruto apologized.

The others just either scowled or sighed.

"So why are we traveling like this? I mean all secretive and sneaky-like," Naruto asked looking at Kakashi.

"So Gatou doesn't find us. But something bugs me, those ninja that attacked us before they were known as the Demon Brothers….and they supposedly work for a man named Momochi Zabuza," Kakashi told them.

"Don't forget about his little lapdog, Haku," Serena added with her arms crossed.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the kunoichi in surprise.

"How do you know of them?" he asked the kunoichi curiously.

"Had a couple of missions where I had a run in with them. Haku and I have this rivalry going on-trying to see who can kill the other first. Of course, we've never been able to finish whenever we run into each other because by then ANBU would have arrived and they would have to run to escape. I even had to fight both Haku **and** Zabuza at once a couple of times," Serena explained meekly as if it were nothing that she fought against Momochi Zabuza and Haku together on multiple occasions and lived to tell the tale.

Tazuna and the boat driver both looked at her in awe; Kakashi had mixed emotions of impressment and wariness at the fact his student had to fight to the death against his enemies more than once.

Naruto had this tough expression as if what Serena just told them was nothing compared to him. Sakura had this "whatever" expression and Sasuke looked impassive as always.

"So if we've defeated the two demon brothers then Zabuza will, no doubt, probably try to come after us. Cause knowing him he'll try to get things done himself to please his supplier that appears to be Gatou himself," Serena mused her thoughts aloud.

Kakashi nodded in agreement while both Tazuna and the boat driver visibly gulped in nervousness and fear.

"Exactly what I was thinking so how do you think we should proceed?" Kakashi asked the kunoichi.

"Well, I would make it look like we know nothing about a possible attack from Zabuza and his lackey but still be on the look out for possible danger. If we do happen to run across the pair no doubt Zabuza will attack first and Haku will stay hidden up a tree somewhere to observe our skill and movements," Serena thought aloud.

Looking at Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura the Drystilia continued with her musings, "Not to make it sound like you guys are too weak to fight or anything but I think it would be best if you three stayed and guard Tazuna-san should we happen to encounter Zabuza. I will guard Tazuna from behind since that's where Zabuza likes to strike his victims.

I know you guys think you should fight too, but Zabuza is on a whole different level than you three. He's killed countless times without a single thought where as you have yet to make your first. Trust me when I say this that you three just aren't ready to take on someone like Zabuza Momochi.

Leave the fighting to me and Kakashi, Kakashi-sensei will no doubt fight Zabuza which leaves me with Haku."

Sasuke looked pissed, Sakura irritated and Naruto looked down in the dumps and yet understanding. Kakashi had been nodding his head the whole time in agreement so we all know what he's thinking and Tazuna and the boat driver just looked like they felt out of place.

Eventually the three consented and they had reached the shore. Piling out Tazuna thanked the boat driver and they started down the road to Tazuna's house where Squad 7 and their client will be staying for the duration of the bridge being built.

The only thing that was out of place was that Naruto kept bounding around everywhere looking like a fool in Serena's opinion acting like he was on the alert for danger when there was none to be found.

One time Naruto even threw a kunai into some bushes cause he thought he had heard something; when he went to go investigate he saw that it was only a white hare scared out of its wits as it stared up at the kunai lodge in the tree just above its head between the ears.

"Oh bunny, gomenasai I didn't mean to," Naruto apologized as he hugged the scarred for life rabbit.

_"That rabbit looks familiar….wait! That's no wild animal that's-" _Serena stopped her thoughts long enough to knock Tazuna down on the ground with her body while shouting, "GET DOWN!"

Just in time too, for the others barely had time to throw themselves to the ground before a huge head cleaver came whirling over their heads and embedded itself in the bark of a tree. Serena and Kakashi were the first ones to react as they hauled themselves to their feet and in Serena's case, help Tazuna to his feet.

Kakashi looked at the sword when he heard laughter ring out and saw none other than Momochi Zabuza the Demon Assassin Hidden in the Mist.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"

* * *

Ren: "Well there's Chappie 8."

Sasuke: "Read and Review please?"

**Glossary****:**

**Urusai: Shut up!**

**Teinousha: Moron**


	10. The Churning Of The Waves

**Ren:** "Hey guys I'm back and here's Chapter 9!"

**Itachi:** "Ren does not own Naruto if she did she would marry me."

**Ren: **"For the last time, Itachi NO!"

* * *

**-****Chapter 9****: "The Churning of the Waves"-**

_**Recap-**_

_**Kakashi looked at the sword when he heard laughter ring out and saw none other than Momochi Zabuza, the Demon Assassin Hidden in the Mist.**_

_**"Well, well what do we have here?"**_

_**-End Recap**_

"Hatake Kakashi the copy-nin and Drystilia Serena the Wandering Kunoichi, quite the bounty I can get on your heads, but unfortunately, I'm not here for you two. Hand over the Bridgebuilder and I just _might_ let you walk away alive," Zabuza said in a deadly voice.

"And you are Momochi Zabuza Demon Assassin Hidden in the Mist, where's your lackey? Did he become the pansy he always is and ran away?" Serena taunted as she scanned the trees with her eyes and chakra.

_"Got nothing…..must be masking his chakra signature then. Figures, Haku was always the one to pop out at the last minute,"_ She thought.

By now Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto had picked themselves off the ground and were watching the scene with wariness and a little bit of shock.

"Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto remember the plan! I taught you three the value of teamwork, now it's time to use it!" Kakashi hissed to the three genin.

"Hai," they said in unison before surrounding Tazuna, Sasuke in the front and Naruto on the right and Sakura on the left.

Serena completed the circle by guarding Tazuna's backside.

"Haha, can't wait to die, eh Kunoichi? Well I'm afraid Haku won't be joining us to-" Zabuza was interrupted by a senbon being flung at Serena to which she deflected with a senbon of her own.

"Ah, there you are," Serena said to the masked boy before her.

"Haku, what are you doing!?" Zabuza snapped at his fellow nuke-nin.

"Well, you know, after that pansy insult I had to be the one to show you up. So we meet again, Serena-san?" Haku said calmly to his rival unleashing a little killer intent.

"Unfortunately," Serena drawled her killer intent clashing with Haku's.

"We will never hand over the bridge builder!" Kakashi called out to Zabuza as he unleashed his killer intent.

"Haha, fine then I guess I'll just have to kill you and then take the bridge builder by force! How's that Hatake Kakashi the copy cat-nin?" Zabuza shot back joining the party of killer intent with his.

_"The air! It's…suffocating! Four shinobi's killer intent clashing in the air….it's almost unbearable!"_ Sasuke gasped in his head drawing out a kunai to stab himself with it.

"Sasuke, stop!" Kakashi's voice rang out causing Sasuke to halt and look up at his sensei in shock.

"Don't worry, you all will be fine! Trust me, I will not allow my comrades to die!" Kakashi reassured his student.

"Nor will I," Serena called out keeping her gaze on the enemy in front of her.

"Hehe, how all very touching, now excuse me while I go and kill the Bridgebuilder!" Zabuza interrupted.

"So I take it, you know of me? Seeing as how you called me by my nickname," Kakashi spoke to the nuke-nin as he crouched low to the ground ready to defend against any attack the swordsman sprung at him.

"Of course, I know all about you and how you are able to perform over 1,000 jutsus," Zabuza said.

Sasuke, Sakura, Tazuna and Naruto looked shocked.

_"What's he talking about?"_ they all thought.

"And don't think I don't know about you either Drystilia Serena, Wandering Kunoichi!" Zabuza called to the raven causing her to raise an eyebrow at the man.

"You do? Well that's a first! Usually I have to shout things in your ear for you to understand them," Serena said her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Zabuza scowled behind his mask and Kakashi snorted in amusement.

"Yes, I do know about you two. That you Kakashi have the Sharingan in your left eye and you Serena have a rare kekkei genkai known as the Ikichimatesun. That's how Kakashi is able to copy and do over 1,000 jutsus and how Serena was able to become so strong in such a short time," Zabuza said smugly.

Serena and Kakashi already knew this so they weren't affected by this bit of news being revealed. For the other genin of team 7 and Tazuna it was a whole different story for them; one that was so shocking and surprising that they couldn't help but stare at the two in awe and a little skeptical.

"Well don't forget about your pansy partner-in-crime over here, Zabuza. Haku also has a bloodline limit that allows him to control ice by turning water into ice, and use ice jutsus. I also assume that you know about my kekkei genkai from when I used it to fight you both back in the mission when I was still a kusa kunoichi," Serena pointed out as if this was nothing new.

"Hai, that was also when I managed to stab you in the kidney with a poisoned senbon. How's it doing by the way?" Haku inquired.

"Doing just fine, actually. I was able to extract the poison three seconds later and I also recall that I broke your mask into pieces with one punch. Where'd you get this one? Stole it from the next hanta-nin you murdered?" Serena spat in a deadly voice.

"Where else could I get one? I'm a nuke-nin remember," Haku reprimanded the kunoichi.

Serena threw her senbon at the nuke-nin growling at him, "Stop scolding me like you're my father ya great, big pansy!"

Haku blocked Serena's senbon with his.

"Enough talk, Kakashi! Hand over the Bridgebuilder or die!" Zabuza threatened.

"And for the last time, IIE!" Serena snapped back before Kakashi could say anything.

"Uh, what she said," Kakashi commented slowly.

"Fine, have it your way!" was all Zabuza said.

The next thing anyone knew sparks and a metallic CLASH! rang through the air.

"Still as predictable as ever, eh Zabuza?" Serena taunted.

What had happened was Zabuza launched an attack at Tazuna's backside but Serena had seen the attack coming a mile away so using her Doragon to parry with Zabuza's head cleaver so now the two nin were in a deadlock of steal and sword starring each other down.

"Ah, it's been a long time since you've used Doragon against me," Zabuza commented as he eyed the deadly katana.

"I'm glad you remember it," was all Serena commented.

"How could I ever forget a weapon that has a poison on it that can only be extracted by the weapon itself? I've seen what that katana does," Zabuza stated.

Even Kakashi looked surprised and shocked at this revelation.

In an attempt to aid his partner, Haku jumped into the fray with a senbon poised for Serena's exposed torso. Serena saw this attack as well and used a senbon of her own to stop Haku's in its tracks.

"Mind if I cut in?" Haku taunted the two.

Then a kunai came out of no where only to impale Zabuza in the forehead.

SPLASH!

Zabuza disappeared in a rain of droplets courtesy from Kakashi.

"Ah, so you saw that it was a mizu bunshin, eh Kakashi?" Zabuza's voice drifted to their ears.

Since Zabuza was gone for the time being, Serena sheathed Doragon to allow her attention to be focused solely on Haku as they were still in a deadlock with their senbons. As if reading Serena's mind, Haku sprung away into the trees, Serena having but no choice to follow the false hanta-nin.

"Serena-san, matte!" Kakashi called out after the kunoichi in vain.

"Haha, guess it's just me and you, Kakashi," Zabuza taunted the scarecrow.

"Zabuza, I was hoping it not to have come to this but you leave me with no choice," Kakashi snarled in a deadly voice with his hand on his hitae-ate.

"You mean you-re-" Zabuza choked as he stared in surprise at the jounin instructor.

"Hai Zabuza, now meet _my_ Sharingan!" as he said this Kakashi quickly pushed his hitae-ate up to reveal his left eye that revealed to be, indeed, the sharingan with its three, charcoal black tomoes wading in the crimson red sea of the retina.

_"How can he have the Sharingan? Everyone else who has it is dead!...Except me and __**him**__…..he couldn't be related to me in some way could he?"_ Sasuke pondered as he stared suspiciously at his sensei.

Before anything else could further develop Haku came flying through the bushes smacking his backside against the trunk of a tree with a sickening crunch. Not a moment after a kunai flew through the branches of a tree aimed for Haku's head and would have impaled him if he hadn't rolled away a few seconds before the kunai made a thunking noise as it sunk its blade in the bark of the tree.

Then a black and blue blur sped out from the trees that the others were able to distinguish a few seconds later to be Serena as she made a roundhouse kick at Haku's head only to be blocked by Haku's left forearm.

"Looks like they're having fun," Zabuza commented with a chuckle as he watched the two go at it completely ignoring the others around them.

Zabuza took the distraction that was currently captivating the other's attention to try to take out the Bridgebuilder. Fortunately or unfortunately, Kakashi not only saw this but also saw through the illusion that revealed Zabuza to be another mizu bunshin, acting quickly Kakashi used a kunai to impale the clone in the chest before it had the chance to strike Tazuna's exposed backside.

"Haha, again you saw it to be a mizu bunshin but I knew you would," came Zabuza's voice from behind Kakashi.

"Now, you've fallen for my trap!" he snarled swinging his head cleaver at Kakashi's backside.

SPLASH!

Kakashi disappeared in a shower of water causing everyone but Serena and Haku's eyes to widen in shock and realization. Then Zabuza felt the cold steel of the bladed tip of a kunai against his throat.

"And you have fallen for mine, Zabuza," Kakashi taunted the swordsman in front of him.

Zabuza only chuckled before he used the flat of his head cleaver to knock Kakashi away into a nearby lake.

"KAKASHI-SENSEI!!" Naruto and Sakura called out.

Hearing the cries made Serena falter in her attempt to block Haku's senbon he had flung at her letting the senbon dig into her left shoulder with a wince. Still recovering Serena then wasn't able to block the punch Haku threw at her cheek that caused her to twist around on her feet in the beginning of a fall toward the ground and she would have if she hadn't done a quick one-handed cartwheel away from Haku flipping afterwards over to where Tazuna and the others were landing with a grunt before yanking the senbon out of her shoulder.

When Kakashi resurfaced, however, he found the water around him to be a little abnormal in his opinion.

"The water, it's heavier here," Kakashi mused aloud suspiciously.

"Hehe, and now you've fallen into my other trap!" Zabuza hissed at the copy cat with a gleam in his eyes standing on the lake next to Kakashi's head finishing up some hand seals

Eyes wide, Kakashi tried to escape but 'twas in vain as Zabuza proceeded to shout _"Suiro no Jutsu! (Water Prison Technique)"_

Kakashi rose up out of the water and the water itself formed a bubble-like prison around him with half of Zabuza's forearm submerged through the wall of the prison standing next to it.

"Can't…move," Kakashi grunted through gritted teeth as he tried to move his body and limbs.

Zabuza snickered before speaking, "My jutsu prevents you from moving so good luck getting out of this Kakashi!"

Serena then took out a kunai with a smirk behind her mask.

"True, but if we can get you to remove your arm from that water prison then we won't have anything to worry about now will we?" She said confidently.

"And how will you be able to do that when you have your hands full with not only Haku here, but myself as well?" Zabuza questioned with a smirk of his own as he made a handsign with one hand and a water clone appeared before Serena with Haku at its side.

_"Chikushou, both of them at once, not good at all. I'll need the Ikichimatesun to help me in this fight,"_ Serena thought.

"Then I guess I'll have to start bringing out the big guns," She simply stated to the nuke-nin.

Then she straightened her back, closing her feet Serena stretched her arms wide before bringing them together to make rapid handsigns with her eyes closed.

"Hm, now it get interesting Haku," Zabuza said to his apprentice.

"Indeed it does, Zabuza-sama……indeed it does," the apprentice replied.

The others, though, were completely bewildered as to what was happening. A few seconds later they became not just only bewildered but downright flabbergasted as well as Serena opened her eyes to reveal that the kunoichi had at last activated her kekkei genkai, the Ikichimatesun.

"Come at me now, if you dare," Serena growled as she glared at the pair before her.

"Okay, pause for a sec. What the effing hell is up with your eyes?" Sakura demanded her fellow kunoichi.

"And they call you the brightest kunoichi of your year," Serena drawled.

"This would be my rare kekkei genkai Zabuza was rambling on about, my Ikichimatesun," Serena explained as she stared at her foes unblinkingly.

Even Sasuke gaped at Serena in shock. I mean, another person with an eye doujutsu like his, who would have thought?

_"I'm not alone after all, I guess I mean in away she somewhat reminds me of __**me**__. Only I don't know if she has a family or not,"_ Sasuke thought bitterly.

It was Haku who initiated the first move as he flung senbon at the raven haired kunoichi whom deflected the senbon with hers. Then with a snarl the Zabuza clone charged at Serena swinging his head cleaver wildly at the kunoichi's head. Using Doragon she parried Zabuza's sword with her katana but then with her 360 degree vision she saw Haku charging at her backside with a senbon poised so Serena twisted around to use a kunai to block the senbon glaring at the boy.

"Oh right, I forgot that kekkei genkai of yours allows you to see 360 degrees," Zabuza said as an afterthought.

"Oooo, sugoi!" Naruto exclaimed in awe.

"Naruto!" Sakura scolded.

"Nani?" Naruto asked confused.

Just then something rushed out of the bushes at the real Zabuza.

"What the-" Zabuza choked jerking his torso around with widened eyes he saw another Serena coming down on him from above with Doragon raised above her head, Ikichimatesun activated.

"-but how?" Zabuza gasped while at the same time bringing up his head cleaver to block Serena's Doragon when she tried to strike the swordsman in his surprise.

"Die!" another voice shouted from above and Zabuza had to jerk back around to see ANOTHER Serena coming down from above Ikichimatesun activated, Doragon poised above her head.

In order to avoid the fatal blow, Zabuza had no choice but to move his arm from the prison binding Kakashi narrowly missing Serena's Doragon.

"But…I don't understand!" Zabuza bit out in confusion.

Then sounds of cracking made Zabuza, his clone, Haku and everyone else but Serena and Kakashi look at the Serena fighting the Zabuza clone and Haku and the Serena that had made Zabuza move his arm from Kakashi's water prison only to see them all a gritty brown with cracks spreading throughout their bodies before they broke, falling to the ground in a pile of sand.

"Suna Bunshins," Kakashi informed the real Zabuza as he glared at him while Serena took this time to throw a kunai at the swordsman's clone.

To which, the kunai impaled making it disperse in a shower of water. Serena then disappeared herself from behind Zabuza only to reappear in front of the three genin and Tazuna her focus back on Haku.

"Your move, Haku," She taunted the boy as Zabuza and Kakashi glared at each other.

Haku scowled behind his mask at the kunoichi before performing some handsigns for one jutsu both he and Serena knew very well. Serena sheathed her Doragon to make handsigns of her own.

"Sensatsu Suisho (Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death)," Haku called out. Water needles flew out of the lake to impale Serena in the torso.

POOF!

A log fell to the ground where Serena once stood with Haku's ice needles stuck in its bark. Then a familiar voice called out causing Haku to turn to see Serena forming a jutsu of her own.

"Suiton: Suigadan (Water Release: Water Fang Bullet)" She shouted before jumping up in the air, yanked down her mask to spit a bullet of water at Haku pulling her mask back up just as quickly afterwards.

Then right after that even quicker than before, Serena did another series of hand seals that made Haku gasp.

"Sensatsu Suisho (Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death)" Serena called out once again.

The bullet of water that was hurtling towards Haku like a Haley's comet became a bunch of ice needles that rushed at him in the same velocity. Haku jumped to dodge but Serena was prepared for this action and showed it by disappearing, reappearing before Haku could land from his dodging jump to slam a foot into the nuke-nin's chest sending him flying through the air.

Around house kick sent him higher into the sky but Serena wasn't finished with her attack just yet.

KICK! KICK! KICK!

Higher and higher into the sky Serena kicked Haku into the sky relentless in her attacks. Then she disappeared only to reappear above Haku to jack hammer him in the chest. A round house kick here, a round house double punch there and a final axel handle to the face Haku was sent crashing to the ground as Serena called out,

"_Ookami Rendan! (Wolf Combo-My move, no copying unless I say you can BORROW!)"_

Landing on the ground Serena waited for the smoke to clear to see if Haku was feinting or he really was down for the count.

Meanwhile, Kakashi and others were having problems of their own. Kakashi and Zabuza had begun to fight not long after Haku and Serena, but somehow Zabuza managed to land a very bad blow to Kakashi's torso knocking him backwards into the tree line opposite of the clearing of where the rest of Team 7 and Tazuna were.

Zabuza use this opportunity to launch an attack at the three genin knocking them away from Tazuna, kicking off Naruto's hitae-ate in the process.

Zabuza used his sandal to stomp Naruto's hitae-ate into the ground while sneering at the genin, "Punks like you don't deserve to be shinobi! You're just a bunch of snot-nosed brats strutting around claiming that you're shinobi when in reality you haven't become a shinobi until you've made your first kill!"

Naruto looked scared shitless as he sat sprawled on the ground letting reality sink into his brain and senses.

"_This guy really wants to kill me! I've got to get outta her! I've got to get away from this man!"_ Naruto was about to bolt when a searing pain in his hand stopped him.

Then he remembered the promise he made, it was after Serena had left to tie up the Demon Brothers and Kakashi was discussing with them if they should continue with the mission or not.

_**Flash Back**_

"_We should go back, plus if Naruto looses anymore blood he could die!" Kakashi pointed out._

"_Not to mention the fact that I would feel much more comfortable if we got more experienced to handle this mission," he added as an afterthought._

_Then something happened that made Kakashi and the others look in the direction of a certain genin, Naruto's. Tired of being pitied on he had taken a kunai and stabbed his injured hand with it._

"_HAVE YOU GONE MADE, NARUTO?!" Serena screeched at the blonde in shock._

_Naruto didn't answer her question instead he started mumbling something gradually getting loud and louder as he spoke, "Why….is….everyone…always….treating me different? Why am I always getting left behind? From this day forward by this wound I make this promise that whenever in battle I'll never runaway! That's my nindo way!"_

"_Uh, Naruto that's cool and all with the speech and everything, but if you lose anymore blood…you're going to die," Kakashi said slowly._

_Naruto started freaking out._

_**End Flash Back**_

"_That's right, my promise!"_

Then he sluggishly got to his feet then without any type of warning he charged at Zabuza.

"NARUTO, IIE!" Sakura shouted in panic after the blonde.

"Dobe, you're going to get yourself killed!" Sasuke muttered after the blonde.

When Naruto reached Zabuza the nuke-nin merely kicked the blonde away.

"Naruto, are you okay?" Sakura called to the knucklehead as he got up. She then noticed that something was in his left hand that wasn't there before, his leaf hitae-ate.

A vein popped on her forehead.

"You mean to tell me you went through all of that just to get your hitae-ate back? Are you nuts? You could have gotten yourself killed!" the cherry blossom hissed at the blonde baka.

"I made a promise! I will not run away, not from you or anyone," Naruto growled at Zabuza as he tied his hitae-ate to his forehead.

It seemed now that everyone else who had witnessed the speech also remembered Naruto's oath.

"Well? What do you say, teme? You gonna let me hog all the action? Or are you gonna help me defeat this haisha?" Naruto jeered at the Uchiha.

Sasuke grunted with a smirk on his face.

"Hn, dobe," he sneered the blonde sidling up next to said blonde glaring at the S-class nuke-nin.

"Are you crazy? Did you forget what Serena-san and Kakashi-sensei ordered us to do? We can't fight him!" Sakura shrieked at them in disbelief.

"Well who else is going to protect Tazuna? Kakashi-sensei is down and Serena-san has her hands full fighting Haku," Naruto argued as all four of them watched Serena roll around on the ground just barely missing the senbon Haku flung at her from above.

"Hn, lets do this!" Sasuke stated confidently.

"Dattebayo!" Naruto shouted putting his hands in a cross fashion summoning chakra.

POOF!!

A crowd of Naruto clones appeared but it was Sasuke who made the first offensive attack on Zabuza. In retaliation Zabuza sent him back with a punch and kick to the torso. With a battle cry Naruto and his clones took out a kunai each launching an attack of his own by leaping on top of Zabuza. With a snarlish roar Zabuza flung them off of him with a flurry of kicks and punches that sent the clones flying across the ground on their backs destroying a few clones in the process.

POOF!

POOF!

POOF!

A bunch of clones were destroyed as they slid across the ground.

"_I'm not done yet!"_ Naruto thought digging through his backpack.

"Sasuke-teme, catch!" Naruto called out to the Uchiha while chucking something at said boy.

Sasuke immediately caught on causing him to smirk.

"_So that's your plan, not bad Naruto!" _Sasuke thought as he caught the object spinning around afterwards.

He held the object in front of him while glaring at Zabuza. When he finally opened the object it looked like a giant shuriken with curved tips.

"Demon Wind Shuriken: Windmill of Shadows," Sasuke called out.

Zabuza didn't look the least bit intimidated in fact he outright laughed.

"That? You think something as slow as that can even catch me let alone defeat me? You've got some nerve gaki I'll give you that," Zabuza taunted the Uchiha.

"Hn," was all Sasuke grunted before doing a running leap into the air in order to launch the giant shuriken at the nuke-nin.

Zabuza didn't even dodge the projectile thrown at him, instead he caught it by the ring in the middle of the shuriken. But then his eyes widened as he spotted a second giant shuriken whirling in the air towards him.

"Shadow clone of the demon shuriken," Zabuza uttered before he jumped to let the giant shuriken pass under him.

Landing he looked up and his eyes widened for another time as the ex-mist-nin spotted ANOTHER Fuma Shuriken hurtling in the air at him.

"A shadow clone of the first shadow clone?" Zabuza questioned before stepping to the side letting the Fuma Shuriken graze by him.

Then a chorus of poofs made Zabuza look to see the tow shadow clones of the Fuma Shuriken turned out to be Naruto and kage bunshin henged as the shadow clones of the Fuma Shuriken.

"What the-?" Zabuza trailed off his eyes wide once again in shock.

"Eat this!" Naruto growled before he and his clone chucked a kunai at the swordsman from both sides.

"Kuso!" Zabuza cursed leaping out of the way.

The kunai rebounded harmlessly off of each other while the Naruto clone poofed away as the real Naruto fell into the lake.

"Why you little panku!" Zabuza snarled at the blonde turning on him with the closed fuma shuriken.

WHOOSH!

Serena had broken away from Haku and raced to appear before Zabuza and Naruto with her arms outstretched preparing for the attack a she glared at the swordsman with her Ikichimatesun activated standing on top of the water.

Serena rapidly made some handsigns to call out, _"Suiton Bakusui Shoha! (Water Release: Exploding Water Shockwave)"_

Then water rushed at Zabuza too fast for him to dodge or counter attack and so he was washed away through the trees until he smacked his back against a tree.

"Grr, can't move!" Zabuza uttered before two senbon punctured his neck and he fell unconscious.

Before Serena could go in for the kill, Haku appeared grabbed Zabuza and with a POOF! He and Zabuza were gone.

"Shimatta!" Serena cursed falling to one knee in slight exhaustion.

Then she remembered Kakashi and she was immediately back up on her feet rushing over to the gray haired cyclop who had by now pushed his hitae-ate back down over his Sharingan eye. Reality was Kakashi was just fine, just a little woozy from a little blood loss and low on chakra but not enough to pass out.

"Stay still I know a technique that will heal you," Serena ushered the sensei who was in the midst of trying to sit up.

Knowing he was fighting a losing battle, Kakashi relaxed as Serena kneeled next to him.

Then Serena performed a few handsigns muttering, _"Shosen Jutsu! (Mystical Palm Technique)"_

Then her hands started glowing green that made Kakashi's eyes widen in recognition.

"How do you know how to do that?" Kakashi asked in awe.

"Did you think you were the only sensei I've had? A certain someone taught me this technique when I was under their tutelage. Now hold still while I heal you," Serena answered in annoyance.

A few minutes later and Kakashi was as good as new, well aside from the chakra exhaustion thing. The same thing couldn't be said for Serena, though, when she deactivated her Ikichimatesun a wave of queasiness and dizziness over coming her afterwards.

"Oohh, lovely," Serena groaned pinching her nose.

"Side effects?" Kakashi piped up with a grimace.

"Yeah, past the 1 hr to the 2 hr mark so don't make me do any sudden movements and I should be fine. You better go check up on the others see how they are doing. I'll be over there shortly after I heal my shoulder," Serena said as she fought very hard to keep the bile from rising up her throat.

"Alright," Kakashi simply said trudging back to the rest of the team.

After Serena healed her arm she had to quickly rush behind a tree as she could no longer control her flip flopping stomach to yank down her mask so she could hurl as quickly and as quietly as she could at the base of a tree.

"_Well there goes breakfast,"_ Serena mentally groaned wiping the saliva and vomit from her lips.

"Hey, what's up with Serena-san? She just all of a sudden ran behind that tree," Naruto asked concerned.

Kakashi sighed before explaining about the side effects of Serena's Ikichimatesun to the genin.

"Yikes!" Naruto muttered afterwards.

Just then Serena finally made her way over looking a little pale and tired. She only had to take one look at Naruto's facial expression to know that Kakashi had already explained about her Ikichimatesun to them and sighed.

"Now that the enemies are gone, may we please proceed with the mission?" She openly asked wanting to get the attention off of her.

Catching on, Kakashi quickly answered, "Hai, we may."

So with that the journey resumed and the next thing Serena knew they were at Tazuna's home sitting around the table. Well for the most part of the group, Kakashi was reading his porn at the table (Rude much?) Sasuke and Naruto were having an eating contest by stuffing their faces with Tsunami's cooking then they'd throw it back up again when their stomachs couldn't hold anymore before going right back to stuffing their faces.

Sakura tried telling them to stop if all they were going to do was stuff their faces and throw it back up again. Tazuna and his nephew, Inari, were watching the contest with a mixed look of disgust and awe. Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter was slaving at the stove cooking up dishes.

The only one who wasn't joining in on the festivities was Serena as she sat in the corner meditating as her stomach was still too queasy to eat at the moment and she wasn't the type to be around people unless it involved training or missions.

The flip flopping of her stomach hadn't ceased one bit and the fumes of Tsunami's cooking and the sounds of Sasuke's and Naruto's hurling wasn't exactly helping matters. So thinking fresh air would help and the urge of wanting to be alone made Serena get up and cross over to the front door.

The squeak of the door caused the others to look up to see Serena taking a step outside closing the door after her.

"Hm, I guess she's not one to be around people," Kakashi noted aloud.

"Finally some air and peace," Serena sighed breathing in the air before walking at a leisure pace into the forest just beyond Tazuna's porch.

* * *

Ren: "And that's the end of Chapter 9."

Itachi: "Read and Review or die!"

Ren: "Itachi you baka! We're trying to accumulate readers not scare them off!"

Itachi: "Don't call me baka!"

Ren: "Shut up, baka!!"


	11. Return of the Demon Hidden in The Mist

Ren: "You know the drill, Chapter 10 is up."

Naruto: "Ren does not own me or anything related to me if she did she would be a multibillionaire."

* * *

**-****Chapter 10****: "Water Walking And The Return Of The Demon Hidden In The Mist."-**

Naruto was happily snoozing away in one of the rooms Tsunami lent them to use when all of sudden he jerked awake as something cold and wet made contact with his face.

"Blarghhh!" Naruto cried out sitting up spluttering and coughing.

The blonde looked up to see the culprit turned out to be Serena with one hand on her hip while the other held a metal bucket.

"Now that you've gotten your beauty rest you can get up, it's time for training," Serena drawled.

Ignoring the curses being thrown at her from the blonde, Serena turned on her heel and walked right out of the room so the Uzumaki could get dressed from his green boxers and mole night cap. A few minutes later the genin and their sensei were gathered at the edge of the lake down the shore from Tazuna's cottage.

"Ok, since you've all mastered the tree walking exercise the next lesson in chakra control is to accomplish the task of water walking," Serena instructed.

Naruto and Sakura stared wide eyed at the kunoichi.

"Are you crazy?! You expect us to be able to walk on water?" Naruto deadpanned to the raven kunoichi.

"I did it yesterday, Kakashi-sensei did it yesterday, Haku did it yesterday, Zabuza did it yesterday; what makes you think you can't do it?" Serena pointed out.

Naruto fell silent at this proclamation and Serena was free to move on by quickly summoning chakra to her feet and walked onto the surface of the lake being careful to distribute her chakra evenly.

Turning around to face the genin she started to explain the concept to the three, "Think of the tree walking exercise if that helps but with a few variations. A tree you don't have to predict where it's going and redistribute your chakra because it's a stationary object, it can't move. Where as with water it is constantly moving from some way or another, by the wind or winged insects or aquatic animals so you have distribute your chakra all around the bottom of your feet instead of just one spot and keep checking the chakra as the waves of the water move. You still have to be wary of the amount of chakra you send to your feet because if you send too little you'll fall right in, where as if you send too much you'll get blasted off from the water exploding."

The three genin nodded to tell the kunoichi they understood and started to summon chakra of their own. When they were ready they each summoned up the courage to slowly step up next to the lake and step out onto the water. Or tried to at least, each genin had a different result.

Naruto fell in right away with a big splash.

Sasuke wasn't completely standing on the water his feet sinking below the surface up to mid-calf before he couldn't control it and fell in.

Sakura actually did manage to stand on the surface but she hadn't acquired the skill of multitasking yet as Serena proved later by flinging a kunai at the squealing pinkette in annoyance. The pinkette shrieked, lost control of her chakra and fell in. When she surfaced later spluttering and coughing Sakura glared hard at her fellow kunoichi.

"Gomen, slipped; you also need to work on that multitasking skill as well," was Serena's excuse.

Kakashi snorted in his book.

Then just to spite the pinkette, Serena used her water affinity to make some of the water squirt in the pinkette's face.

"-Why you-!" Sakura growled leaping at the smirking kunoichi.

Quickly summoning more on her affinity, Serena stepped up as if she were going up a staircase and the water rose up to meet her foot, stepping up again Serena was now higher than Sakura's attack range allowing Sakura flow under her and fall back into the lake.

Sakura stared up at Serena in anger and awe when she surfaced.

"Before you attack me, remember this pinky, water is my strongest affinity. So I'd watch it if I were you because the next time you attack me I'll do more than just squirt water in your face and put on a fancy water show. Got that, forehead?" Serena growled icily giving the pinkette a death glare that sent Sasuke's cowering under the blankets.

Sakura was about to snap back a comment but Kakashi being the good person he was, decided to intervene once again.

"Enough you two! Keep this up and you'll both be worse than when Sasuke and Naruto fight," Kakashi cut in not looking up from his book.

"Hmph," came from Sakura.

"Hn, whatever," came from Serena who turned walking away from the team disappearing beyond the trees at the edge of the lake.

"Don't cause too much trouble," Kakashi said to the three genin before darting after the disappearing kunoichi.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto hollered after the jounin.

"Yo, Serena-san, wait up!" Kakashi called to the raven as he hurried to catch up to the girl.

Sighing, Serena lent against a tree with her eyes closed and arms crossed.

"What do you want, Kakashi?" Serena droned to the grey haired cyclop.

"Actually, I was wanting to know what you plan on teaching the genin after this?" Kakashi asked meekly rubbing the back of his head.

"Well their chakra control will be where it needs to be for what an average genin needs it to be once they've accomplished the water walking exercise. I have an idea! How about we work on their ability to sense chakra signatures? I know a really good method and it would be a very useful aide," Serena suggested.

Kakashi nodded content with that answer.

"Perfect," he commented.

"Now, I have a question for you Kakashi-sensei; when are you going to teach me this Chidori jab? I'm helping you train the genin so what about your end of the deal?" Serena inquired if only a little perplexed then slightly annoyed.

"Actually, I was thinking about that as you mentioned it so I thought right now would be a good time while Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto are busy with their water walking technique," Kakashi answered the kunoichi.

Serena was content with this answer.

"Ok, I'm ready when you are," Serena said to the silver shinobi.

"First off, take off those weights and I mean all of it! You're going to need all of the speed you possess to perform the Chidori," Kakashi instructed.

"Erm, um…okay," Serena said slowly with a blank face shrugging.

Once all 600 lbs were removed from Serena's limbs the raven felt like she could moon walk all over the earth.

"Okay to perform the Chidori you must form the required hand signs which I will give you in just a moment, then poor all of your chakra into your left or right hand depending on which hand you prefer, after that you release it on an object or enemy by punching the target with the Chidori and all of this must be performed at a very fast pace," Kakashi explained the attributes of his jutsu.

Once Serena was taught the necessary hand signs, she chose a target in the form of a boulder near by she back flipped to get a good running distance only to crouch low to the ground afterwards with her feet spread apart to allow her left arm be steadied between them with Serena's right hand, the left hand spread out in a claw like fashion just barely brushing against the topsoil all of this being done after the necessary hand signs were performed, of course.

Gradually sparks of blue lightning danced and played between the kuniochi's fingers and palm. Eventually it got to the point where the lightning became more frequently pronounced to where it bounced and rebounded off of each other so much that a sound emitted from the blue ball of electricity very much akin to that of a multitude of birds giving anyone the impression if they were watching that the Drystilia was holding a blue, chirping ball of lightning.

Serena took this as her cue to start sprinting toward her target but in Kakashi's eyes you would think she would have been a ghost as one minute he saw the girl just crouching low to the ground then she wasn't and the next thing Kakashi knew Serena had appeared before the granite mineral her arm reared back to be thrusted forward to punch the boulder as if it were an actual enemy shinobi, shouting at the top of her lungs at the same time,

"CHIDORI!"

BOOM!

A huge cloud of smoke and debris filled the clearing making Kakashi cover his exposed eye until the gray mushroom-like cloud dissipated and the laid back shinobi was able to lower his arm to observe the damage.

"Hm, not bad, not bad at all," Kakashi commented his opinion.

"Well, I can see that you no longer any of my assistance from the looks of things, so I will head on back to watch over the kiddos. Keep performing the Chidori and keep track of how many you can do; once you've run out of enough chakra to perform anymore chidoris that's the limit to how many chidoris you can do. Any beyond that limit could lead to your death from zero chakra," Kakashi instructed once more before disappearing from the clearing.

Serena shook her head in annoyance.

_"I guess that's all you can expect from Hatake Kakashi the Copy-cat nin. Well, better get to work then, and I should probably find more boulders,"_ She thought.

After finding good enough targets, the raven kunoichi set to work.

"Yo, how's everything going?" Kakashi announced his presence to the three genin once he returned to the lake making Naruto lose concentration the result to that was to fall in the lake once again with a big screech (Waah!) and splash.

Sakura burst out laughing at the sight as she stood on top of the water observing the two male shinobi's progress and efforts. Sasuke himself was starting to get the hang of water walking as he stood on the surface of the lake with one foot, and yet not for the other foot was still ankle deep below the surface of the lake.

"Hey, where'd Serena-san go? Wasn't she with you?" Naruto asked curiously when he surfaced.

At that precise moment a loud BOOM! sounded throughout the forest and lake making birds take to the sky screeching in alarm and surprise. The three genin looked for the source and stared wide eyed at the dome of dust and smoke just barely peeking over the tree tops behind Kakashi.

"Training," was all Kakashi answered not even bothering to look behind his shoulder to know what happened.

The three genin stared at their jounin-sensei with quizzical looks.

"Training?" Sakura echoed in question form with a frown etched on her face.

"Hai, did you forget that she's also a genin just like the three of you and therefore must be taught just as well?" Kakashi pointed out.

An "Oh" formed on the lips of the three genins' mouths. Another BOOM! made its presence known almost teasingly to the genin. Next thing Kakashi knew Naruto was out of the water racing for the edge of the forest.

"H-hey! Where do you think you're going?" Kakashi cried out to the boy as he passed him.

"To see what Serena-san's training on, of course," Naruto shouted back as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Sakura and Sasuke looked at each other before following after the blonde.

"You're supposed to be training!" Kakashi hollered after the two in annoyance before giving up and following his students.

Serena was barely even sweating when Naruto rushed out of the bushes followed shortly by Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi. Naruto took one glance at the crater sized holes in the boulders before he started 'ooing' and 'awwing' over them.

Serena, who was annoyed at the interruption, scowled and glared at the blonde as he bobbed around her asking questions like, "How did you do that?" "Are you really training? Kakashi said you were!" and most of all "Can I watch?"

Finally, she got so annoyed she bonked the Uzumaki on the head to make him shut up and stop moving around.

"Shut up, dork!" She growled at him then the Drystilia turned her glare on Kakashi knowing full well that he was the one responsible for this intrusion.

"Nani? Don't look at me like that! They asked me where you were so I told them you were training and now they want to see what you're training on! Is that a crime?" Kakashi defended himself before hiding behind his porn book.

Serena sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"So what's the count?" Kakashi had the nerve to ask.

"Five, right now but I still have half of my chakra left," Serena answered gruffly.

"Five!? I can barely do four!" Kakashi choked on his words.

"The great copy-cat nin Hatake Kakashi can't even do five Chidoris! How disappointing," Serena drawled rolling her eyes.

Kakashi face faulted in a deadpan. Sakura got out a stick and started poking Kakashi in the back of the head to see if he was still in the world of the living.

"Eh, Kakashi-sensei? You alive still?" Sakura questioned.

Kakashi yanked the stick out of Sakura's hands and whacked Serena over the head with it.

"Oi, what the hell was that for?" Serena roared at the cyclop rubbing her head glaring daggers at the jounin teacher.

"For being a smartass!" Kakashi shot back with a glare of his own.

"Well, I'd rather be a smartass than a lazy hentai like you!" Serena growled.

"Uh, guys?" Naruto tried to intervene the bickering couple.

"-I'll have you know I'm a respectable and honorable sensei-" Kakashi tried to defend himself hotly.

"-Respectable and honorable my ass! All you do is sit on a log somewhere and read that porn book of yours!" Serena cut in.

"Guys?" Naruto tried again meekly before a bag of popcorn was held in front of his face making him blink in surprise.

He looked to see the hand belonged to Sasuke, of all people, who was munching on some while watching the argument.

"Eh, where the heck did you get a bag of popcorn all the way out here in the middle of an effing forest?" Naruto asked dubiously.

Sasuke merely pointed to a stand at the edge of the clearing where a brunette with crystal blue eyes was selling bags of popcorn like crazy to a line of people while shouting, "BUY A BAG OF POPCORN AND WATCH SERENA AND KAKASHI ARGUE LIKE AN OLD MARRIED COUPLE!"

Serena and Kakashi got pissed at this comment and chased the line of people away destroying the popcorn stand in the process.

The brunette was collapsed on the ground, with streams of tears running down her cheeks, deadpanning, "Everybody is a critic! It was just an idea, no need to get mean!"

The next day, since Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura were still perfecting their water walking exercise Kakashi and Serena had to head to the bridge alone to guard Tazuna. Of course, Kakashi left a clone with the three genin in case of kami-knows-what. When the threesome arrived at the bridge however it appeared to be a different story as they found out when they discovered the dead corpses of Tazuna's fellow co-workers.

"What the-! What is this?" Tazuna stuttered in outrage and shock once he saw this.

"It appears that Zabuza and Haku have struck again. We should warn Sasuke-san and the others our enemies may try to strike by targeting Inari-san and Tsunami-san while we're fighting," Serena said thoughtfully.

"Agreed," Kakashi confirmed.

Serena formed a mizu bunshin and sent it to the others. No sooner had she done that white fog thicker than a pillow rolled in and gave off an ominous vibe that immediately mad Kakashi and Serena rush to Tazuna. Serena guarding the back and Kakashi guarding the front.

"What is it? Douka shimashita ka?" Tazuna inquired a little hesitantly as he looked at the two.

"They're here," was all Serena said staring out at the white fog that descended upon them like the shadow in a collapsed cavern at night.

Kakashi nodded to confirm Serena-san's words before deciding to speak up and let Zabuza and his apprentice know that they were fooling no one.

"Reveal yourself, Zabuza or are you going to hide yourself like the coward you are?" his voice rang out.

A pause of tense silence lasted minutes before a sudden sound of sadistic laughter rang out all around them. Serena couldn't help but roll her eyes at the drama Zabuza was trying to press on them.

_"What a hakuchi! Can he hurry up so we can get this over with? This is so boring I'd rather count all of the stones at the bottom of the sea than listen to this hyena!" _Serena thought in a bored like manner and yawned.

"Alright, you clown on crack! Hurry up and get your ass out here I got better things to do than listen to you laugh like some hobo on laughing gas," She snapped to the air.

As if to retaliate to Serena's insults a reign of senbon appeared out of the fog and tried to ensue chaos upon the threesome.

_"Our goal is to protect the bridge builder at all costs! I guess it's time to bring out the big guns,"_ Serena thought biting her thumb to draw some blood.

Then she quickly began to make hand signs unrecognizable to Kakashi and the two nuke-nin's eyes.

_Boar, Rabbit, Tiger, Rabbit, Tiger, Dragon._

_"Kami's Amatsu Purotekushon no jutsu!"(Ninja Art: God's Heavenly Protection jutsu)_ (My jutsu no copying!!) Serena called out before slamming her hands down on the ground.

A whitish-transparentish sphere with three layers surrounded the three before Serena stood back up and the senbon bounced harmlessly off of the middle layer of the sphere to lay at the ground.

"Uh, Serena-san? What is this jutsu? I've never seen it before and what does it do?" Kakashi asked slowly as he eyed the sphere around him.

"You wouldn't have heard of this jutsu before Kakashi. Why, is because I created this jutsu and have only used it about two times in my life time and those who have seen me use it have perished at my hands. The name of this jutsu is called Kami's Amatsu Purotekushon no jutsu. Basically it's a shield in the shape of one giant ball with three layers to it and it's impenetrable. The reason why that is because of the three layers, the first layer is to stop any human being or animal from entering the shield, the second layer is to stop any weapons or projectiles from attack us while the third and last layer is to stop offensive jutsus such as the Katon jutsus, Kawarimi no jutsu, and the Shunshin no jutsu. You have to be careful though, because once you leave the shield you can not return. There is also only two ways to get rid of the jutsu, one is if the caster dispels the jutsu via chakra and the other way is……" Serena trailed off.

"What? The other way is to what?" Tazuna was the one to ask these questions perplexed.

_**"Is to kill me!"**_Serena answered in a deadly voice.

* * *

Ren: "Oh, I am evil! Another cliffy, wohoo! I rock!!"

Naruto cast and crew: "Noooo, not another evil cliffy!"

Ren: "If you want to find out what happens next, read and review!"

**Glossary****:**

**Douka shimashita ka?**­**-Is something wrong?**

**Kami's Amatsu Purotekushon no Jutsu-Ninja Art: God's Heavenly Protection jutsu for explanation read the chapter.**


	12. Water VS Water, Stay Alive Serena!

Ren: "Chapter 11 is coming up."

Sasuke: "Ren does not own Naruto if she did she would be a multibillionaire."

* * *

**-****Chapter 11****: "Water Affinity V.S. Water Affinity, Stay Alive Serena!"-**

_**Recap:**_

_**"What? The other way is to what?" Tazuna was the one to ask these questions perplexed.**_

_**"Is to kill me!" Serena answered in a deadly voice.**_

_**:End Recap**_

The two gasped as they stared wide eyed at the kunoichi.

"Well, then if that's the case, I guess we'll just have to kill you to get to the Bridgebuilder," Zabuza's voice drifted to their ears.

"…Let's make this quick shall, we? Haku, do whatever it takes to kill her even if you have to use _that_ move," Zabuza ordered his apprentice.

"Hai, Zabuza-sama," Haku answered.

"Hn, I'd like to see you try, Haku," Serena challenged.

"Will do, Serena," Haku said appearing out of the mist as it lessened in thickness.

Two senbon clashed together a clang of precision and death as Serena and Haku both glared daggers at one another. Haku threw a left hook at Serena's face which she caught with her right hand. Zabuza tried to strike Serena while Haku had her preoccupied with a swing of his head cleaver if Kakashi hadn't jumped in at the last second to block the giant sword with a kunai.

"Grrr, Kakashi! Get out of my way! That brat is the key to getting rid of the bridge builder," Zabuza growled at the cyclop.

"Your fight is with me, Zabuza!" Kakashi snarled back.

Serena tried to kick Haku's feet out from under him but Haku jumped away to race behind Serena to attack her exposed backside and would have succeeded if she hadn't back flipped away from the scene and away from Tazuna to land somewhere in the midst of the surrounding fog.

Haku came after her lashing out with his senbon only to be blocked by Serena's senbon and jumped to avoid Serena's side kick but Serena was prepare for this and plunged a kunai into his side.

SPLASH!

_"It was only a mizu bunshin?"_ Serena realized.

She turned around to stop Haku's with her own once again.

"You should give up now while you can," Haku said with utmost certainty in his voice.

"Oh and why is that?" Serena questioned with an expressionless face.

"Because I have two advantages over you. One we re surrounded by water; and two I have one of your hands preoccupied," Haku informed her.

Serena looked suspicious and yet curious.

"Well, what about you? You also have only one hand free," She pointed out.

Haku didn't answer with words, instead he used his free hand to suddenly start making one handed hand signs.

_"Nani? He can do one handed jutsus? Since when?" _Serena thought alarmed.

Next thing she knew the water around them had risen up around her and formed what looked like mirrors of ice in a dome shape. Then Haku melted into the mirror behind him appearing in all of the mirrors afterwards.

_"What is this jutsu?" _Serena thought looking around her at the mirrors.

"This will be your demise!" Haku threatened crossing his arms with a senbon in each hand.

"Serena-san!" Kakashi called out concerned when he saw his student trapped in Haku's Demonic Ice Mirrors.

He tried to get to her but Zabuza stopped the jounin in his tracks by swinging his head cleaver down at the pavement at the bridge before Kakashi's feet.

"Uh, uh, uh, Kakashi! I'm afraid it's like you said, your fight is with me!" Zabuza taunted the jounin.

Kakashi growled and then turned his head to glance at Tazuna still within the shield.

"Stay inside the shield and you'll be fine. Should the others come, tell them they are to stay and guard you no matter what the circumstances may be," Kakashi ordered.

Tazuna nodded. With that Zabuza and Kakashi disappeared into the now thickening mist leaving him all alone to deal with the imaginings he drew up from the clang and battle cries that reached his ears.

Serena hissed in pain as she felt Haku's senbon sink into her flesh from everywhere she looked and felt.

_"I think it's time to call on my Ikichimatesun, heavens know I'll need it," _She thought

Quickly doing so, she could now see better and slightly evade the senbon reigning down on her but not all of them.

Meanwhile, Tazuna just stood in fear and tension awaiting the outcome of this battle when several pairs of feet rushing over to him made him turn just in time to see Naruto slamming into the shield and fall down, his face looking like one of those cartoons when they run into a glass wall or a kid with their faces pressed up against a glass case to ogle over something that caught their interest.

"Itai, what the hell old man? Why can't I get near you?" Naruto cried out rubbing his poor abused nose.

"And where are Kakashi-sensei and Serena-san?" Sakura asked as she and Sasuke appeared at Naruto's side.

"It's Serena-san's jutsu thing that doesn't allow anybody in. Serena got trapped from what I could hear from Kakashi and Zabuza's voices. I think it was the boy that trapped to try and kill so Zabuza could get to me and him and Kakashi are off fighting each other somewhere," Tazuna informed the three genin.

"Nani? Serena-san's trapped? Then let's go help her," Naruto screeched.

Tazuna shook his head in the negative.

"Iie, you are to stay here and guard me on behalf of Kakashi's orders," He told them.

"Like hell I'll wait here!" Naruto growled out before racing into the mist to look for the raven.

"Baka, don't go off by yourself!!" Sasuke called out racing after the blonde.

Sakura stayed to guard Tazuna.

"Chikushou," Serena cursed before coughing up some blood and falling to one knee.

_"There's gotta be something I can do as a counter attack! Think Serena, think! What is good against ice? That's easy fire, but I don't know any katon jutsus since the Uchiha has yet to teach me any. But didn't he use a katon jutsu against Kakashi in the bell test? What was it again? Oh yeah, Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu. Well, it's now or never Serena,"_ She said to herself.

The raven hauled herself to her feet to try and recall on how Sasuke performed the jutsu and required handsigns.

_"He did the handsigns, then took a deep breath before bringing his fingers to his mouth and breathed out, ok. I hope this works,"_ Serena prayed in her head.

Serena did the hand signs and gather chakra to her chest before taking a deep breath before bringing her fingers to her mouth to exhale. Amazingly enough, flames did appear, but it only made it halfway to Haku in his mirror before dispersing.

_"Kuso, it didn't work! Think, what did he do that I didn't?" _Serena thought grimly.

Haku snickered and tried to sneer something but was interrupted by a deep voice.

"You need to gather more chakra than that."

Serena and Haku looked to see Sasuke and Naruto standing next to her glaring at Haku.

"Sasuke-san? Naruto-san? You shouldn't be here, get out now while you still can!" Serena said coldly.

"We gotta get some action in this mission don't we?" Naruto asked incredulously.

"Fools, the both of you!" Serena snapped at them in annoyance.

Then she tried the Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu once again, keeping in mind of Sasuke's advice to draw on more chakra. When she brought her fingers to her mouth she only had to exhale letting the flames come to life in desired form and rammed into the mirror in front of her licking hungrily at the ice mirror.

Unfortunately the ice didn't melt from Serena's efforts as they found out when the jutsu ended and the mirror remained untouched.

Haku laughed and spoke, "These mirrors cannot be melted by fire it is unbreakable!"

"We'll just see about that, Haku-teme!" Serena growled back defiantly.

"And just how will you do that? By glaring at the mirrors in hopes that they'll combust into flames and melt? Ha, don't make me laugh!" Haku insulted with a sneer.

"In case you haven't noticed, dipshit! A Katon jutsu isn't the only thing I know and you're not exactly dealing with a bunch of clowns here! From what Kakashi told me you have Uchiha Sasuke, the top rookie of the year and Uzumaki Naruto the most unpredictable knucklehead you'll ever face!" Serena said coldly as she glared daggers at the nuke-nin.

"Don't forget about yourself, Serena-san. You're the Wandering Kunoichi, the most renounced kunoichi in all five shinobi nations and one of the most dangerous, too," Sasuke pointed out.

Serena glanced at Sasuke out of the corner of her eye for a second and nodded.

_"What's his deal? I thought he was supposed to be the cold-hearted one? And here he is giving out compliments and advice as if it were candy?"_ She thought.

_"Back to the matter at hand; those mirrors aren't going to melt by fire so how about we smash them? I could try out that Chidori on Haku, Kakashi-sensei taught me yesterday," _Serena mentally planned as she stared at the mirrors in front of her.

"Sasuke-san, Naruto-san listen up, douzo, I have a plan on how to get out of here but it's going to take some time to prepare. You think you guys can distract Haku long enough for me until I am ready?" Serena asked as she glanced at them to see both were looking at the mirrors trying to figure a way out, themselves.

Both boys nodded ready to aid their fellow comrade in any way they could. Then tacking up both sides of Serena they got in fighting stances and waited for Haku to make the first move. While Serena and Naruto stood at the ready, Serena proceeded to take off all of her weights so she was free of anything restricting her from performing her attack.

Haku, on the other hand didn't seem to agree to this plan as he tightened his grip on his senbon and glared at the threesome or more specifically, Serena.

_"Whatever she's doing, I can't let her do it. I must stop this __**now!**__"_ Haku thought and then proceeded to fling his senbon at the trio from all mirrors, thus from all directions as well.

"Kuso!" Naruto cursed before yanking out a kunai to parry the senbon as best he could with Sasuke joining him.

Naruto formed a familiar hand sign producing a couple dozen of Kage Bunshin that launched themselves at the mirrors and Haku in the hopes of retaliation. Sasuke helped out by trying to once again melt the mirrors with his Katon jutsus.

All the while this was happening, Serena herself, was forming hand signs of her own at a rapid pace, only to crouch low to the ground afterwards steadying her left arm and hand between her legs with her right hand.

"Hhhhaaaahhhh," Serena uttered under her breath as blue lightning sparks danced around her hand in a jerking glee, soon before anyone knew it a blue ball of lightning had formed with chirping sounds like that of thousands of birds emitting from the blue sparking ball of light.

Slightly perplexed by this, Sasuke, Naruto and Haku all watched this progression from out of the corner of their eyes all the while thinking the same question.

_"What the hell is she doing?"_

"Sasuke-san, Naruto-san move out of the way! _Quickly!_" Serena ushered to them concentrating on the blue chirping ball.

Shrugging, both genin did so thus allowing Serena to disappear from their sight as if she hadn't been there at all, only to reappear right in front of the mirror with the real Haku in it. Her arm reared back ready to punch the mirror.

So caught off guard by this revolution, Haku had but only a few milliseconds to form one thought before jumping out of the mirror in an attempt to escape from his death, _"I've got to escape!"_

Haku had only just landed outside of the mirror when the kunoichi he was fleeing from punched the vacant mirror with all of her might crying out at the same time, "CHIDORI!!"

The result to this effect was the shattering of the mirror, with the shards falling to the ground at Serena's feet. Naruto and Sasuke looked on in awe and hope as there was now a way out. Haku, on the other hand wasn't so happy about this turn of events.

"Guys! Now's your chance-Get out!" Serena barked at the two genin.

"Oh, yeah!" Naruto blurted as if he just now realized this.

The genin then ran out of the trap as Haku swung a right hook at Serena's head to which she ducked and tried to kick Haku's feet out from under him. Haku jumped to avoid the kick and Serena took this chance to thrust an open handed jab at Haku's abdomen that sent him skidding backwards clutching his stomach, panting.

Serena fell into a taijutsu stance that was slightly different from the stance she used to fight Neji with. Her left side faced Haku with her left leg outstretched her right leg was bent facing the direction of the mirrors behind her. Her left arm was stretched out parallel to her left leg with her palm facing Haku and her right arm was raised up to her mouth and bent back as if she was preparing to punch Haku in the face, except instead of her hand formed into a fist, her index and middle finger was pointed out towards Haku with the rest of her fingers tucked into her palm.

Being in this stance with her Ikichimatesun activated she looked like she was ready for whatever Haku threw at her as she glared at her rival with her ponytail waving in front of her face from the wind. Yeah she was ready, ready for anything at least that was what Serena thought until Sasuke and Naruto sidled up next to her falling into simpler taijutsu stances of their own.

"Are you both freakin' nuts? I thought I told you two to stay back! Do you realize how high the odds are stacked up against you two if you fight Haku?" Serena snapped coldly at the two with a glare.

"Did you forget what we told you back in the mirrors?" Sasuke countered with a question of his own with a raised eyebrow at the kunoichi before continuing, "We gotta get some action in this mission otherwise how will we get the experience you said that we needed?"

Serena sighed in exasperation.

"Fine, just don't get yourselves killed, okay?" She finally said as eh gave them a glowering look.

"As if he could kill me," Sasuke scoffed as Naruto rubbed his nose sheepishly.

Haku chose this time to fling senbon at the trio, to which Serena yanked out a senbon of her own and used to parry the projectiles from herself and the boys.

"Hello, to you too, Haku," Serena drawled rolling her eyes.

Sasuke smirked and Naruto snorted in amusement. Serena fell back into the taijutsu stance she was in before only to switch to the offensive as her left leg bent toward Haku and her leg was outstretched. Springing off the ground at a blinding speed she jabbed with a thrust of her right hand that had her index and middle finger pointed out.

Haku ducked but Serena smirked underneath her mask as there was vroosh! as wind brushed past Haku's neck and with it a small gash appeared stinging enough to make Haku clamp a hand over the wound hissing angrily like a cat.

Serena then took this chance to sock him right in the face with enough force that Haku flew backwards and rolled over face down. As Haku got to his feet, you could hear the sounds of cracks spreading as pieces of Haku's mask broke off to fall to the ground. By the time Haku was fully on his feet, his mask had fallen of completely to reveal a boy's face no older than them and charcoal black eyes.

Haku glared at Serena in annoyance.

"That's the second mask you broke! And what was that attack just now? I've never seen nor heard of such," he growled at the kunoichi.

"Get over it, and the attack is a family technique one of which I am not going to expose to the likes of you!" Serena sneered.

_"Family technique? So does that mean she has a family? And why did she look so closed off when she said 'Family?'"_ Sasuke thought suspiciously.

He couldn't help but suspect that there was a whole underlying plot Serena was hiding and here were several secrets to go along with it, too. The question is-just what exactly is she hiding?

Haku was about to retaliate when something rushed out of the fog in a flurry of swords and growls at Serena. Unprepared by the sudden appearance of Zabuza, Serena didn't have time to defend herself from Zabuza's head cleaver as it swung at her torso with enough force that it knocked her back over the edge of the bridge and fall into the ocean below.

"Aargh," Serena grunted.

"Serena-san!" Naruto and Sasuke cried out in unison rushing to the side of the bridge in the hopes to see if she was alright.

When they looked down at the ocean, however, there was nothing in sight but a bunch of ripples in the water from where Serena fell in. Serena tried to swim to the surface clutching the gashed that raked over her stomach at an angle starting from her left ribs just above the liver to down to her right side ending above her kidney. As much as Serena tried she couldn't for she felt a cold burning sensation spreading throughout her body and limbs keeping her from moving her limbs even an inch making her feel numb and heavy all over. She also felt her chakra drain from her reserves as if some chakra sucking machine was attached to her and was sucking out all of the chakra she possessed leaving the kunoichi no choice but to disconnect the chakra running to her eyes, thus shutting off her Ikichimatesun her eyes bleeding back their original midnight blue color with the following effect of a migraine pounding in her skull afterwards.

_"Shimatta! The teme must have put poison on his head cleaver!"_ Serena thought before her eyes rolled up into the back of her head, falling into the world of unconsciousness to slowly sink to the bottom of the sea.

* * *

Ren: "And that's the end of Chappie 11."

Sasuke: "Read and Review, please!"


End file.
